The Western Post - January 2024

January Puzzle

---

By The Holy Principality of Saint Mark, Guardian of the West

Roo-fur Madness – Full version here

Solve the anagrams to reveal the letters for the final message, and then use the circled letters from the words in the top part to complete the final phrase at the bottom. Each circled letter is used just once.

Send your finished answers to The West Pacific Master Dispatch to be featured in next month's paper!

Congrats to the solver of last month's puzzle:

Con Nihawitan

And there's more! All who solve a puzzle now receive a challenge coin, so that's another reason to try your hand at solving our monthly puzzles, especially since you can display it in places like your signature and trophy case. Thank you to Fujai for creating the challenge coin!

2023 Holiday Playlist

---

By the residents of TWP!

Every season of Midwinter Shenanigans, residents of the West Pacific and visitors alike submit their favorite holiday songs on the Regional Message Board during Karaoke Fridays, a regional tradition that has happened for years.

Two festivities ago the Holiday Playlist was introduced, and now we've gathered the songs shared during the 2023 that together form our third playlist, a total of forty-five songs! Here you can see all the songs, which nation posted each in the message board, and the links to them so you can enjoy the holiday tunes as well.

A Christmas Song, Bhang Bhang Duc
https://youtu.be/BdalBvgNAxI

Adeste Fideles (O Come, All Ye Faithful), Nas Crustium
https://youtu.be/VVDkWTpHnW0

All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth, Corbeil
https://youtu.be/I-iFsxSNN2c

All I Want For Christmas Is You, Corbeil
https://youtu.be/oflFgOYyeoU

Christmas Canon, Mediobogdum
https://youtu.be/4cP26ndrmtg

Christmas Comes But Once A Year, All Good People
https://youtu.be/8QNk_Ul76rs

Christmas Metal Rock, Corbeil
https://youtu.be/ul6Khms6qxg

Christmas Saves the Year, Rengum in Lingo
https://youtu.be/ByK84WFMaJw

Christmas Truce, All Good People
https://youtu.be/HPdHkHslFIU

Christmas Wrapping, All Good People
https://youtu.be/nud2TQNahaU

Don’t Shoot Me Santa, Bhang Bhang Duc
https://youtu.be/cglLJJ0Czo8

Do They Know It's Christmas, Corbeil
https://youtu.be/Gifrd7ljNL4

Father Christmas, Corbeil
https://youtu.be/fPPCPqDINEk

Feliz Navidad, The Vergville
https://youtu.be/N8NcQzMQN_U

Gaudete, Bhang Bhang Duc
https://youtu.be/1mLGFLdsjFQ

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, The Holy Principality of Saint Mark
https://youtu.be/ku7ohU1IGls

Good King Wenceslas, The Holy Principality of Saint Mark
https://youtu.be/SQVUMG6LZGM

Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, Bhang Bhang Duc
https://youtu.be/MgIwLeASnkw

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Nas Crustium
https://youtu.be/SFjMPaOBzXc

Here It Is Christmastime, Corbeil
https://youtu.be/P8CxQbyhifQ

Holly Jolly Christmas, Corbeil
https://youtu.be/b14zdWTFo_k

I Believe in Father Christmas, Bhang Bhang Duc
https://youtu.be/yfY4b1NszpY

I Want You For Christmas, Corbeil
https://youtu.be/6xc2NcULOfk

I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday, Bhang Bhang Duc
https://youtu.be/IJPc7esgvsA

I Wonder As I Wander, The Holy Principality of Saint Mark
https://youtu.be/n8neL0rgCuk

Jingle Bells in the Style of Van Halen, All Good People
https://youtu.be/Hl-xop8Y4JA

Little Saint Nick, Rotvania
https://youtu.be/xp9rK8FmYog

Mary's Boy Child/Oh My Lord, Rotvania
https://youtu.be/T7H1_Y_Jgpo

Merry Christmas Everybody, Bhang Bhang Duc
https://youtu.be/PTslBTBl1X8

Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight), Bhang Bhang Duc
https://youtu.be/KIhIBFPtnoc

Petit Papa Noël, Desmosthenes and Burke
https://youtu.be/NPwUJDtvxJA

Please Daddy Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas, Bhang Bhang Duc
https://youtu.be/Li8GrxE1jfg

Ring Out, Solstice Bells, Bhang Bhang Duc
https://youtu.be/XJS9TjjHxx8

Run, Run, Rudolph, All Good People
https://youtu.be/YiadNVhaGwk

Silent Night, Nas Crustium
https://youtu.be/u9jQl6JcIVQ

Snoopy's Christmas, Corbeil
https://youtu.be/uhRy-yTKJkc

So This Is Christmas, Corbeil
https://youtu.be/mK9Gwn8_BsQ

Step Into Christmas, Bhang Bhang Duc
https://youtu.be/IbRtGMm96F8

The Chanukah Song, Rotvania
https://youtu.be/KX5Z-HpHH9g

The Night Santa Went Crazy, Corbeil
https://youtu.be/0FJU4GrXztE

The Twelve Pains Of Christmas, Corbeil
https://youtu.be/AcNU6atT0-k

To Christmas! (The Drinking Song), Jolly ole saint nick
https://youtu.be/Lw7ix71tsTo

White Christmas, Mediobogdum
https://youtu.be/fd2Xjg2Y7nQ

Yelling at the Christmas Tree, Phoenician Sailors
https://youtu.be/wlZIwTRqxxo

You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch, Yy4u and All Good People
https://youtu.be/6KdLcd-sUQA

It's been a minute, folks! Welcome back to another Lorekeeper's Log, where we highlight some of the awesome creations by Storytellers in TWP's Roleplay Community! In this edition, the TWP Roleplay Lorekeepers (similar to moderators) highlight some of our favorite recent work by community members. In general we will stick to stuff within the last month or two, but sometimes we might dig an older gem out of the proverbial vault. Without further ado, on to the show!

Factbook Spotlight

This month, we're spotlighting The Great Compendium of Giovanniland History (say that three times fast). Giovanniland has put in massive amounts of effort on this, creating one of the deepest histories of any nation on Esferos. While it currently only contains information relating to Giovanniland's ancient and medieval past, from the ancient Lavandulan states to the Lavandulan Empire, all the way to the rise of the Abrentan Republic and later Giovannian Empire, I happen to know he's working on some more modern stuff as the Storytellers of Aura gear up to rework the continent's modern history.

Here's a map from the Medieval Age section depicting the situation of Lavender Island in the year of 95 BF, with a higher quality version available as well. The first civilizations of the island were the Lavandulans to the north and the Minsunese to the southeast, although the Lavandulans were in decline at this point after the fall of their empire. The Glendora people arrived during the peak of the Lavandulan Empire and settled west of it, later forming the modern-day nation of Blue bubble or Glenpavia as it is known natively. Furthermore, after originally being a part of the Meridionali confederation that lived in southern The Holy Principality of Saint Mark, the Abrentan people fled through the Darkesian Sea and settled in the southwest of Lavender Island. The Abrentans and Lavandulans were the two peoples that eventually contributed to the formation of the Giovannian Empire and modern-day Giovanniland.

Culture and Maps

In addition to working on a complete redesign of Sekiyan culture, Sekiya has started a mouthwatering guide to the country's food: the Comprehensive Guide to the Culinary Scene of Sekiya! I absolutely adore that it's written as an in-character book with a writer and everything—it really takes you in, and I love the culinary groups map! So far they have posted a short summary of each culinary group, ranging from the globally known Banyue cuisine from the southwest of the country, to the central Heping cuisine that is popular within Sekiya but not really elsewhere, and rare local cuisines such as the Dongchi and Kaluo, respectively in the east and northwest of the country. I can't wait to see the rest of the book!

There's also other great artworks recently made by Sekiya worth highlighting! They've redesigned their flag recently and it looks positively gorgeous, as one can see in their national page. Furthermore, the satellite view of Sekiya they made is a wonderful map, presenting the location of major cities and other pale areas where a majority of the Sekiyan population lives, while the shade of green indicates how forested an area is, as well as other geographical features. A higher quality version of the map is available here!

National News

Among many others, Laskadayone started a newswire thread in the last few months, and it deserves a shoutout! I always love election analyses and Laskadayone does not disappoint, especially with the deep dives into the country's political climate and elections. After the recent civil war in the country, the political landscape is rapidly changing, and the article provides an insight into which parties fared well in the elections and which ones didn't, the seats achieved by each of them, who might form the next cabinet, and much more. For clarity, the full meanings of abbreviations were added within brackets. You should also check other threads in The Repository – Local & World News for other interesting newspapers!

Laskadayone wrote:

ELECTION RESULTS

Potro — The results of both the general election and the referendum are out. Although there were pros and cons regarding the presidential election being abolished in the final seconds of the campaign. All elements of society can accept the reality that will happen to their country. In addition, the government agreed that there would be no formation of an upper house and would retain the current council, for now the king has the right to appoint 10 people to the new House of Representatives.

Based on the SEC [Election Supervisory Committee] results, the ruling party, NPDU [National Party for Democratic Unity], officially lost its majority in parliament with the number of seats falling from 132 seats to 79 seats from 240 seats. Meanwhile, the Social Conservative Democratic Party gained an increase of 6 seats to 50 seats. The LAVA [Laskadayone Village Alliances] party had to swallow the bitter pill after losing a third of their seats from the previous 30 seats to only 20 seats remaining and placing them in fourth place. Then in the last ranking, the JPP [Justice Patriots Party] had to feel the loss of two of their seats in the constituency which was previously a repository for the JPP's votes, but is now starting to be penetrated.

Meanwhile, a massive party was taking place at the Laskadayone Young Generation Party or LYGP office, even though it was only separated by one seat from the winner of the election. This party made an achievement by increasing 61 seats or a total of 78 seats out of the 240 seats being contested and placing them in second place.

The defeat of the parties above was caused by several things, such as NPDU having to lose their central figure, President Franklin Starpoint. Then LAVA is inconsistent with their choices in parliament. Meanwhile, the JPP still contains old-fashioned leadership and focuses on veterans' votes, causing them to lose interest from election participants who are dominated by the younger generation.

Based on the election results, the NPDU will be given the authority to form a cabinet. NPDU party leader Gilbert Ruckhez has fifteen days to form a cabinet. If he fails, the Chairman of the LYGP Party, Lucasen Delami, will be appointed to form a cabinet. But he can asked to expanded three times in total 45 days.

According to political observers, the possibility of NPDU to lead the cabinet is very slim due to the lack of seats for the left wing seats and the disagreement between NPDU and LAVA which in total they are only one seat short of leading the cabinet, while the moderate LYGP can boost the majority for NPDU government but they will definitely ask for a balanced agreement because they only have one seat difference with NPDU. Meanwhile, LYGP which can lead a coalition with a right-wing party such as SCDP is more willing to discuss coalitions. However, LYGP emphasized that the coalition was still being negotiated and as long as JPP was not involved, they were willing to negotiate and work together.

Sports

Esteemed Loremaster of Sport United Adaikes recently held the United Adaikes Darts Open! Forty-five players from 11 countries, plus 19 competitors from the host country, competed in two different events at the Steskia Sports MICE Complex in Steskia, United Adaikes. The first event was the Singles event, with each player competing individually, and involved a four-player group stage where the two top players of each group then advanced to the knockouts. Then the Doubles event happened later, featuring one pair of players from each participating nation, that competed in a straight single-knockout match. However, unlike most other sports RP competitions in TWP RP, this one was a no-RP tournament—Storytellers simply provided the names of their attending athletes and the rest was left to Margaret, goddess of RNG! You can check out the winners in the thread linked above.

Meanwhile Inner Ryxtylopia, one of our most prolific Storytellers, has just started a domestic football league! The Liga A will be contested by 22 teams, each of which has a badge designed by Ryx, and I know I'm super excited to see how it goes! My personal favorite crest is Club Atlético Rio Priava out of the capital of Ryxenia—I just really like the CARP initialism on the badge, it looks wonky in a really good way.

As for how the tournament will work, Ryx explains in the post that a regular league stage will happen first, and in order to keep the tournament fair these games will carried out in two legs, meaning that a team plays once at home and once away against another team. After this stage concludes, the eight best teams make it to the knockout stage while the two worst teams are relegated to the second division. Furthermore, for those who participate in our roleplay, Ryx is also looking for a certain amount of international players to be part of teams in the league, though to a limited extent.

Want to join in the fun?

If you want to join our regional roleplay, then read the TWP Roleplay Dispatch for more information on our RP and how to join the map. Also consider becoming an active member in the community by joining the main discord server and our RP server, we hope to see you there!

Back to Top

It's time for another edition of the CityGuessr game hosted by the Western Post! A take on the known game GeoGuessr, where players are given a view of a place and use Google Maps to move around and try to guess correctly, the TWP CityGuessr continues getting participation even after the original creator's departure from the game, and it will stay as a feature of future editions of our newspaper. Of course, in our adapted version there's no possibility to move around, hence we've been restricting the scope of the game.

The results of the third edition are written below! Corbeil rises to the top with 6 points, correctly guessing the location both times they participated in, tied with Nas Crustium who has one correct guess, one second place and one third place for a sum of 6 points as well. Next in the ranking is Pedandria with 4 points, though they have ceased to exist, which leaves the possibility for someone to pass them soon, perhaps one of the many people that correctly identified the photos of Cardiff in the second game.

1. Corbeil – Chagdud Gonpa Khadro Ling Temple, Três Coroas, Brazil – Correct answer! – 3 points

2. Nas Crustium – Mexico City, Mexico – 7,513.80 km away – 2 points

The two photos of Três Coroas are my own pictures and indeed feature the Chagdud Gonpa Khadro Ling which is a Tibetan Buddhist temple. It was founded in 1995 and is the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple in Latin America, and even if one doesn't practice the religion, the temple is very much still worth visiting due to the beautiful architecture and pleasant nature around it in my opinion.

Furthermore, as a new addition to the game to reward those who take their time to participate and hopefully encourage others to join as well, Fujai has designed a beautiful challenge coin to all who solve CityGuessr puzzles! It applies not only to this edition but also to past and future ones, and you can display it in signatures, trophy cases or other places you'd like.

Secondly, it's time to reveal the next challenge! The rules from the first edition written by Tam Dao are reproduced here, for those new to the game.

CityGuessr, as the name suggests, will ask you to guess which city of the world the photos are showing, both photos always referring to the same city. We will keep the scope of the game to cities only, as we don't have the luxury of moving around to check for clues. We will also provide a single clue of the continent where the city is located. Once you have your answer, for a chance to be featured on our next month's newspaper telegram The West Pacific Master Dispatch with your guess, keeping in mind that it must be only one guess and changing it later is not allowed.

To add a bit of competition to the game, we will rank all guesses based on how close they are to the correct answer. The top 3 answers will be given points: 3 points for 1st, 2 points for 2nd, and 1 point for 3rd. The highest scorer will gain the bragging right of being the CityGuessr Champion of the Month, and the top scorer across 12 editions of the game will be crowned CityGuessr Grand Champion.

And remember, no using outside resources to figure it out, otherwise it wouldn't be a guess!

Are you ready? Let the game begin!

For the fourth challenge we move to somewhere else but stay in the same continent, the Americas.

Full quality photos here

Back to Top

The West Pacific Card Club has existed for over three years, but 2023 has definitely been our most successful year! After the seeds planted in 2022 during my delegacy when monthly card contests started to happen, Laudesia joined me in planning these events and participation increased, we've now seen our first year of uninterrupted contests from start to end, for a total of twelve competitions and even more different participants that joined at least one event last year. In this article I'll write about all the card contests that happened in 2023 and the highlights from each event, in order to remember those who participated and celebrate the great results, while also looking forward to another year.

January: The first contest of 2023 was the Avian Celebration Card Contest, created because of the National Bird Day that happens every January 5th and the one year anniversary of my delegacy that took place on January 8th, 2023, as the Lavender Macaw was the animal I chose to represent myself. A total of seven people participated in the event, namely Occidius (Nox), Guam-North Mariana, Rengum in Lingo, Con Nihawitan, Podium, Nagaraningrad, and Aftokratoria, and this turnout beat the record of six people established one month before in 2022's Wassailing Contest!

Among the many collections submitted, I especially liked Nox's unique birdwatching theme and prevalence of real life birds, pictured below, and Rengum's use of the lavender motif in allusion to my delegacy. Rengum, Nox and Podium were ranked first, second and third respectively, with prizes including even the valuable Season 1 legendary card Great Nepal due to the achievement of setting a new participation record twice in a row.

A part of Nox's collection, titled "Birdwatching at Sunset".

February: The Valentine's Card Contest happened together with the region's other Valentine celebrations, and featured the participation of six people, one less than the previous month. Afto, GNM, Nihawitan, and Rengum all submitted a collection again, while the two new participants were CSB PM Union and Racoda. Rengum created a very interesting collection titled St Valentine's promiscuous life, explaining on the message board that the cards related to the saint's story in a snarky or humorous manner, a detailed display of cards that earned them a second win in a row! Meanwhile, CSB got second place by collecting common cards featuring hearts, and Nihawitan's entry was the third placed one, a collection of various aspects pertaining to Valentine's Day.

March: In order to celebrate the delegate transition between me and Overthinkers, due to their representative animal being an unicorn, and honoring St Patrick's Day as well, the Mythical Card Contest was held during March! The rules were to collect cards featuring mythical animals, with a bonus for unicorn cards, as well as St Patrick's themed cards.

Once more the contest featured the participation of Afto, Nihawitan and Rengum, though the win was awarded to the other participant, the only new one this time, namely The Holy Principality of Saint Mark! Halo's collection is pictured below and not only featured a diverse range of mythical beings but also made good use of the unicorn bonus, while Rengum got second place for their collection named The Bestiary, accompanied by a detailed dispatch explaining their card choices and which cards relate to each entry in their bestiary.

The first page of Halo's collection, including a few legendary cards.

April: During this month TWP celebrated its 20th anniversary, a big milestone, so naturally the Card Club also joined the celebration with the TWP 20th Anniversary Contest! Of course, the theme was to collect TWP related cards, for example having a mention of TWP in the name or motto, with bonus points for regional flags and also those of our military TWPAF. Seven people joined and thus equaled the record set in January, definitely a perfect way to celebrate our region!

This time, Afto and Nihawitan were back-to-back participants, while some other previously seen names returned after a break, like Nox and GNM. Furthermore, three other people joined for the first time during 2023, namely Fotisdia, Hongg Kong and Westwind! Similarly to last month, the winner was one of the new participants, namely Hongg Kong. Shown below, their collection showcases regional aspects such as community members and a diverse set of regional and military flags. Nihawitan got second place, their collection focusing on cards mentioning TWP, meritocracy and snark, followed by Fotisdia in third place with a display of notable nations from the region and some TWP flags.

The first page of Hongg Kong's collection, titled "live, love, twp20".

May: The Family Card Contest happened during this month, celebrating Mother's Day that happens on the second Sunday of May for a majority of countries, as well as International Family Day on May 15th. Therefore, participants had to collect family-related cards such as those referencing fathers or mothers in their name or motto, with bonus points for depictions of families. Six people participated, including Fotisdia, Hongg Kong and Nihawitan that joined the previous event, as well as Rengum, Halo and Podium that returned after a break.

The winner was Fotisdia's collection, featuring a diverse and creative range of cards, including deities of various religions who are the patrons of family, motherhood, childbirth and the household, as well as adding cards about royal families. Second place Hongg Kong focused on the Mother's Day celebration with their collection named "unconditional love towards the most magical, terrifying, loving, and best person in the world”, while the third place went to Halo, who collected cards about the Rahl and Halohin families of NationStates.

Halo's Halohin cards, edited to fit all of them in one screenshot.

June: The TWPride Card Contest, part of the region's TWPride celebration, made history when the participation record was once more surpassed! Eight people submitted collections, which is the current record for the Card Club's contests. Fotisdia, Podium, Rengum and Nihawitan were those that continued participating after the previous month, while Apexiala, Foressul, PR Lightspeed Rescue (Dr Hooves) and Omnicontrol joined for the first time in 2023! I was extremely proud of the turnout, and also gifted not one but two high-value cards for each the top four as a result, while the other participants got a Pride-related card each as participation prize.

Apexiala was the winner of the contest, with their collection named LGBT that featured over a thousand cards, while second and third places Rengum and Fotisdia respectively gathered a number of cards well over the hundreds. Last but not least, fourth place was awarded to Dr Hooves' unique collection, who explained in this message that the cards reference the first time a Disney show had a same sex kiss involving the main character.

The first page of Dr Hooves' collection.

July: The TWPatria Contest happened during this month, asking collectors to gather cards related either to their real life or NationStates country, which of course provided interesting variety to the competition! Fotisdia, Foressul, Podium, and Nihawitan participated once more, while Afto returned to a card contest three months after their last participation, for a total of five entries in this contest.

Fotisdia won the contest with a collection about their home country, Greece, representing it well with many cards depicting aspects of Greek geography, history, people and culture. Meanwhile, Nihawitan was awarded second place for their collection named "Our flag", with many cards featuring the same flag as theirs and an impressive amount of their own card too. As for the other collectors, Afto and Podium leaned into the real life theme with the former collecting national flags and administrative divisions of Canada, and the latter gathering cards with the theme of Austria. On the other hand, Foressul pictured how they view their own nation, with a collection titled "Forests of Foressul".

Some Greek-themed cards collected by Fotisdia.

August: For a large part of players in this game, though not me, the month of August is the last full month of summer so the TWP Summer Card Contest was held by the Card Club. The lineup of participants was mostly the same as before, with the exception of Afto who joined in July but not in August. There was a contested battle for first place between Con Nihawitan (1st) and Fotisdia (2nd), both having collected a similar number of cards and making good use of the bonus points for cards depicting beaches as well, while Foressul and Podium also came up with interesting, albeit smaller, collections.

September: Approaching the final months of the year, NationStates holds some special events including N-Day, which was the topic of the Card Club's contest for September! In this event participants were asked to collect cards related to the nuclear apocalypse, for example nations referencing nukes in their motto, flag, or name, with bonus points for referencing notable N-Day factions and happenings. New participants' interest resurged in this event, as Campa simpatica and Nick Carraway both joined for the first time! The other three participants were Foressul, Nihawitan and Nox, the latter making a comeback after several months, for a total of five collections.

Nox's collection was definitely the most creative, because it featured a significant amount of cards related to N-Day history, referencing factions including but not limited to CRAB, Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Crabs of the Apocalypse, the Potato Alliance, and Anime Nations Against Liberals—and indeed it was this collection that won the contest! Meanwhile, the N-Day Card Contest also saw the first ever tie in the history of Card Club events, between Nihawitan and Nick that shared second place.

A part of Nox's collection, titled "Nukes and Nuke Accessories".

October: The regional OcTWPerfest event throughout the month included the Card Club's contribution in the form of the Halloween Card Contest, focusing both on Halloween themed cards in general and zombies in particular, the latter due to the annual Z-Day zombie apocalypse event that happens every year at the end of October. Seven people participated, narrowly missing the chance to tie the record of eight set in June, though the collections submitted were great! Returning participants were Fotisdia, Foressul, Nihawitan and Rengum, while Mediobogdum entered for the first time in 2023, and for Bran Astor and The Warriors of Determination it was the first time overall joining a contest.

Bran won the contest after collecting over two hundred themed cards, followed by Fotisdia in second place and Medio in third place, the latter having dedicated his entire collection to the zombie aspect of the contest. Of course, common themes included all sorts of spooky creatures such as ghouls, vampires, witches, werewolfs and so forth, and also other aspects of Halloween like the pumpkin carving and trick-or-treating.

The first page of Bran's collection.

November: The Fall Card Contest happened during this month, honoring the autumn and also celebrations that happen during this season, with bonus points for cards featuring turkeys due to Thanksgiving. Four entries were received for this contest, submitted by Campa, Con Nihawitan, Foressul and Fotisdia. After all entries were judged, Fotisdia's collection was declared the winner, since they featured various autumn themes like the nature, the months, and celebrations such as Halloween and Thanksgiving—the focus on the latter resulted in many bonus points. Furthermore, Foressul built a creative collection focusing on the natural aspect of autumn as seen below, so they were chosen as runner-up.

Foressul's "Fall in the forest" collection that got second place.

December: Last but not least, the final contest of the year was also part of a month-long regional celebration, this time the Midwinter Shenanigans. The Card Club contributed to the celebrations via its Tree Decoration Card Contest, bringing back a competition theme from three years ago! For this contest participants had to collect cards that fit as decorations for their own virtual Christmas tree, for example ornaments and stars, and they'd receive bonus points if their collection ended up looking like a tree. Nihawitan and Foressul continued their participation, while Dr Hooves and Rengum returned to joining a contest after some time.

Dr Hooves was chosen as the winner, because they indeed planned their collection to look like a Christmas tree when viewed on a computer, and also added some other interesting details such as an angel on top and presents at the bottom. As for second place, it was once more Foressul as in previous contest, due to their collection depicting the holidays and the wintry feeling well.

Dr Hooves' great X-mas Tree collection.

Thus ended the year of 2023 for the Card Club, a very successful year only made possible by the excellent people who put effort on their card collections and submitted them to each contest, as well as Laudesia that has greatly helped me in organizing the events each month. As I wrote in the results of December's contest, I give my thanks to everyone who's participated in any of these competitions that we've held continuously since 2022, and I look forward to seeing many more great collections!

Furthermore, as a bonus feature of this article, I've made a leaderboard of the most successful contest participants in regards to the events held throughout 2023 as you can see below, showing the number of times they got a position in the podium and overall participations. A total of twenty-two nations submitted at least one collection for any of the 12 contests that happened this year, and I'm very happy with that number! In the future I have plans to expand this to cover the entirety of our competition history, most likely as a new thread in the Card Club's special subforum at our regional forums.

We now arrive at the end of this special retrospective about the Card Club's contests in 2023, but stay tuned for more card-related news from TWP in the next Western Post. Furthermore, don't forget to participate in our current event, the Celebration Card Contest, that is currently happening and finishes at the end of this month. Collect cards related to the concept of celebration in general, and then submit your collection link in our RMB with the #TWPCelebrationContest tag so your collection enters the competition!

Back to Top

Artwork by Fujai

Another year has come and gone, and it wouldn't be a true end of year in the West Pacific without our yearly Midwinter Shenanigans celebration! Events new and old alike happened during the holiday season, with the launch of the Secret Santa opened the Midwinter Shenanigans similar to previous years, while the region transitioned to the Wassailing Pacific theme. Matches were sent out after a week and many different gifts were exchanged, from cards to flags and even regions. Two days after, the Tree Decoration Card Contest was launched, as I've written in the article about the Card Club's contests of the past year.

One of the highlights was the first series of polls early in the month! It changes topic every year, and this year's theme was to make a Hallmark-style Christmas movie. Firstly, the region decided that the fatal flaw of an almost perfect boyfriend that led to a breakup was that he couldn't tolerate cheese. The two next polls decided traits of the protagonist—that the profession she decided to leave was professional mourner, and that she hated Christmas due to Mariah Carey songs playing too early and non-stop when she was young. When she returned to her home town, she finds an old classmate with a rustic bartender career, however drama soon ensued in the town when a factory sought to buy the lot where her family owns a Christmas store, namely a reindeer pen. The protagonist tries to save the store, but a misunderstanding happens between her and the classmate, because he thinks she has caught roofur madness. Luckily, their relationship is saved after a magical Christmas yeti that lives in the woods reignites her appreciation for the holidays again, and the town square holds an event with burning of marsupials and singing of Christmas carols around the pyre.

The other series of polls was the 6th Reindeer Annual Death Match, which happened at the end of the month. The eight reindeer Blitzen, Cupid, Dasher, Dancer, Donner, Prancer, Rudolph and Vixen all fought for the chance of challenging the defending champion Comet. Blitzen arose as the clear frontrunner in the first poll, while Cupid, Prancer and Rudolph also advanced, the three of them tied in votes. In the second round, the two latter only got a few votes each and thus did not advance, with most votes going for Blitzen and Cupid—and after that, in a very close third round, Blitzen earned the chance of fighting Comet after edging out Cupid by only one vote! In the championship match between Blitzen and Comet, the challenger successfully dethroned the defending champion, earning the title for the third time and also surpassing Comet in total titles once more. For reference, Blitzen won in 2018, 2020 and now 2023; Comet won in 2019 and 2022; and Vixen won in 2021.

Speaking about other returning events, the Ugly Sweater Week during the middle of the month saw many nations pick sweaters old and new as their national flags, and the weekly Karaoke Fridays' holiday-themed song submissions were compiled into a playlist as seen in this newspaper's sidebar! In a similar way to the previous celebration, the regional forums also joined in the fun through the Midwinter Shenanigans TWPChooses polls that I posted. In the first question, most people favored decorating a real tree over an artificial one, while the second question between having one's ears turn into elf ears or having a Santa beard forever was a very close poll, with one more vote for the latter. And for the last question, when asked if they think 2024 will be better than 2023 or not, most answered positively.

Last but not least, this article wouldn't be complete without mentioning the new events! In the 9th of December, our Delegate Overthinkers hosted the Unicorn Story Hour in the region's Discord server, where she read aloud several holiday stories and poems! OT prepared a selection to start the story hour, while later submissions were provided by the spectators, which thoroughly enjoyed the reading. Furthermore, Bran Astor hosted the first edition of Merry Movie Mondays, modeled after the Monster Movie Mondays that happen during OcTWPerfest. Three of them happened throughout the month, including classics such as White Christmas, and the good news is that starting this year our server will now have a monthly movie every second Monday, so don't forget to join here in this link.

We at the Western Post hope that everyone had happy holidays and a great New Year as well, and we thank everyone who participated on our Midwinter Shenanigans. Stay tuned for more regional events and, when December comes again, another edition filled with many winter-themed activities!

Back to Top

All your chocolate belongs to Darkesia
The Western Post Staff - Delegate: Overthinkers - Editors: Fujai and Giovanniland - Staff: Ageros, Bran Astor, Hertfordshire and Jammbo, Occidius, Podium, Sekiya, The Holy Principality of Saint Mark, Zhiznovsk, and YOU
All your chocolate belongs to Darkesia

spooky!