«12. . .2,1922,1932,1942,1952,1962,1972,198. . .2,6502,651»
Good evening Forest, I hope this message finds you all doing well. I'm in the middle of moving home from the hinterlands to the city, so I'm busy in real life and inactive in NationStates. I hope to be more involved again in the not too distant future. My best wishes to everyone in the meantime.
Bananaistan, Verdant Haven, Einswenn, Chan island, and 13 othersJutsa, Mount Seymour, Ownzone, Daarwyrth, Ruinenlust, Lord Dominator, The Cypher Nine, Terrabod, Middle Barael, Nation of ecologists, Dusty Sandals, Beanzarion, and Forest Virginia
Ah, cartography. I just read a book last month about a little girl who grabs her dad's maps to try and chart out the wild lands. It was a cute children's book, highly recommend.
Considerably more cute is the announcement we now have on cartography: 
Jutsa, congratulations, you're now head cartographer. With powers of communications. And a nice mandate to update the map with whatever Forestian help you like.
Ruinenlust, make it happen.
Einswenn, Kawastyselir, Jutsa, Daarwyrth, and 12 othersRuinenlust, Lord Dominator, Uan aa Boa, Terrabod, The void territories, Northern Wood, Rakavo, Lura, Middle Barael, Nation of ecologists, Garbelia, and Forest Virginia
Done! :-D
(Now nobody is ever allowed to ask me about the cartographer ÊvĘr ÄgÅîŃ!)
Einswenn, Kawastyselir, Chan island, Jutsa, and 5 othersDaarwyrth, Terrabod, Middle Barael, Nation of ecologists, and Forest Virginia
Congrats, Jutsa!
... I think I might have just exhaled for the first time in two months.
Kawastyselir, Chan island, Jutsa, Mount Seymour, and 4 othersDaarwyrth, Lura, Middle Barael, and Nation of ecologists
So would you like to be a cartographer? Hey just exercising my new duties.
Unfortunately the Bureau of Forest Affairs is relatively new in Jutsa, and despite setting up a reporter for the Occupy Forest event that's sweeping the region, seemed to be lacking a mailbox, either due to sheer forgetfulness, socialists tearing it down because it's "private property", punks who decided to steal it for kicks and giggles, an unfortunate hike in mailbox prices during a simultaneous slash in funding, flooding, alien abduction, or simply got lost in the mail. We're still not sure, in large part because the Jutsaish Investigation Service Taskforce recently lost its own mailbox... along with all of its funding due to being outsourced. We'll get back to you with the details assuming we don't get outsourced beforehand.
Seriously though, I'm truly honored to finally be part of the Forest government, and I highly look forward to making the map all pretty~
Also, welcome back to the region and NationStates alike, Coranova! You came back just in time for me not to have probably removed you from the map! (? maybe? Not sure what Octopus Island has in store for me.)
Verdant Haven, Kawastyselir, Mount Seymour, Daarwyrth, and 7 othersRuinenlust, Terrabod, Northern Wood, Middle Barael, Nation of ecologists, Garbelia, and Forest Virginia
Congratulations Jutsa, I'm convinced that you're going to do a great job! This is also the moment where I will shamelessly ask when I can poke you about sending you my request for a spot on the map c:
EDIT: Apologies, your explanation in your post about the Bureau of Forest Affairs and the lacking mailbox flew right above my head, oops. I have my answer there c:
Jutsa, Mount Seymour, Ownzone, Ruinenlust, and 4 othersTerrabod, Middle Barael, Nation of ecologists, and Forest Virginia
really gotta make sure I hit the "quote" button and not the "suppress" button by mistake
Thank you, Daarwyrth! I'm actually extremely excited to plaster everyone's nations on the map, but alas, baby steps must be taken to make sure I don't accidentally nuke the map instead.
edit: Don't worry xD I'm not even entirely certain what happened, but you can rest assured that as long as I'm in control of Jutsa...
uh, then we probably still won't know.
Earl grey anyone?
Ownzone, Daarwyrth, Ruinenlust, Terrabod, and 3 othersMiddle Barael, Nation of ecologists, and Forest Virginia
Good thing I keep a paper bag on the end table for controlled breathing.
You can always unsuppress something if you do it by accident. No worries! Revel in the power! You are the power!
Einswenn, Jutsa, Daarwyrth, Terrabod, and 2 othersMiddle Barael, and Nation of ecologists
Oops I suppressed this by mistake trying to quote it. Ah well good thing I can unsuppress it.
That as an aside I've already spent enough time taming power-crazy lunatics in government (TRI), the last thing any of us needs is another one :P
Daarwyrth, Ruinenlust, Terrabod, Lura, and 3 othersMiddle Barael, Nation of ecologists, and Difinbelk
Congrats, Jutsa! So, can I send you a request to put my nation on the regional map or are you too busy with taking your new office? ;)
Cool suggestion! I think it would be difficult to decide which national language(s) are next, though. How could we decide this in a democratic way? Also, it might happen that the whole thing slowly dies off because people would lose interest in it and then, there would be one language (or a set of languages) that remain(s) in the end. I'm still a fan of the idea of creating one regional language (in addition to English) possibly containing features of national conlangs or whatever that (interested) people agree on.
Daarwyrth, Ruinenlust, Terrabod, Coranova, and 2 othersMiddle Barael, and Nation of ecologists
Yeah, I still have to arrange something with Octopus Islands, I think. Regardless, as soon as I know what I'm doing I genuinely want to put everyone on the map. :)
Just keep in mind, though, the map might look a bit different from what it currently does, so in the event old national boundaries are terminated, it could affect what you want the shape (and even location) of your desired nation to be. That is, if we even remove the (at least long-standing)CTE'd and migrated nations; I think we are, but again, it's something I have to ask Octo about.
Also many thanks for the conflagrations. ;)
Mount Seymour, Daarwyrth, Ruinenlust, Terrabod, and 6 othersNorthern Wood, Lura, Middle Barael, Nation of ecologists, Forest Virginia, and Thrything
Share your themed maps!
Einswenn, Jutsa, Daarwyrth, Ruinenlust, and 2 othersMiddle Barael, and Thrything
Oh golly gee willikers, yes! Of course!
So I got a little carried away after I sent in my map for the original application (which I shall also link), and I ended up making a dozen more... xD
I've created a dispatch specifically for them just in case anyone's interested in the plethora of maps they never knew they needed. (Note: some of these may be highly outdated now since they were made in June, and a couple are actually a tiny bit different since I originally showed them to Terrabod.) Note: The original I sent in (which is my favorite) is the Greenness Index map, but I should mention that this is also the most outdated map as it's based off of Ransium's Greenness Index which was last updated in March.
Hope you enjoy!
If you have any questions, do please let me know. I'm aware some of the maps are a little daunting at first. I have a small FAQ at the end - not that they're necessarily actually FAQ, but sometimes what I'd expect to be FAQ.
Roless Era Maps:
MSR Era Maps:
Jutsa Era Maps:
The links below were all made in June 2021.
Link to everything from the original update: 
Here
FAQish:
1) "What do the 2 and x2 mean?" Second-highest and second-lowest ranked, respectively.
2) "There are multiple Xs" tie. Looking at you 0 Disposable Income nations
3) "What the heck is going on with those colors?" Okay yeah it's a mess. So the black-white bar shows how intense a color should be based on its statistics, whereas the color map shows said statistic. If you have a lot of the green stat, a little of the blue stat, and none of the red stat, you're going to look like a slightly blue bright green or teal. If you have a little of everything, you'll look grey. If you're dark red, you are low in every stat but are a bit higher in the red stat; redish grey is neutral in all but slightly better in red; pale red is high in everything but especially red; and neon red means you're great at red but terrible at blue and green. Again, it's a bit messy, but it's how I set up tristat comparison. :P
4) "Will you make more maps or update existing ones?" Violet knows.
5) "How do I contact you with more questions?" Just telegram me. I don't mind. ;)
6) "Why did you chose to compare these sets of stats?" Arbitrary. Also if I could have more than 3 colours (which is already a mess as it is) I would. q-q
Kawastyselir, Daarwyrth, Ruinenlust, Lord Dominator, and 5 othersTerrabod, Northern Wood, Middle Barael, Nation of ecologists, and Difinbelk
Congrats Jutsa! The wait for a cartographer is finally over, now the wait for Jutsa to be ready to accept applications begins! We wish you luck in fighting against the endless frenzied hordes of map-loving impatient myriads, since now you’re on your own! Well, you’ve got Octopus Islands too I guess…
Also a reminder everyone that although a new cartographer has been selected, they first still have to get into contact with Octopus Island and then remove the CTE’d and no-longer-Forestian nations from the map, so please hold off on sending in applications until Jutsa expresses their readiness for the hordes to return. In the meantime, however, you can post a picture of your hopeful, tentative, possible territorial claims in the Discord, so that you can see where other people hope to claim land so that you don’t try to claim it as well
I think this is an interesting idea. I think all the official languages of all the Union of Forest member states should all be co-official together, but the standard operating language would still be English as the lingua franca. However, having a revolving spotlight language would be interesting. I just think that the standard operating language should be English, as it is the language that we all speak IRL, and also because in-character it would realistically also likely be the lingua franca as well since English has so dominated the world. Currently, I am still in the process of adding new members to the Union of Forest, and so no UoF meetings have taken place yet, but once they start happening (probably next term if I get reinstated), then we can discuss having a revolving language spotlight, and how we may determine which national language gets spotlighted.
As for creating a conlang together, Thrything, I think that could happen, but in that case I’d still recommend that in-character it is either a niche little-spoken language popular only among linguistics enthusiasts (i.e. the “Esperanto route”), or it is just another random language that in-character developed naturally but out-of-character is created collectively. In simpler words, I still believe that in-character it can’t be the lingua franca of Forest, even though I’m fine with the thought of a communal conlang. I just think that if it were the in-character lingua franca that would require nations to adjust too much.
So if we were to create a communal conlang together, I’d recommend one of the following in-character narratives!:
a) IC, it was created to be a pan-Forestian conlang, but never really caught on much (pretty much the story of Esperanto). It’s creator had hoped for it to be a lingua francs to unite Forest, but that never happened, and now English is still the main lingua franca of Forest.
b) IC, It’s just a random language native to [Insert Nation Here], not a lingua franca by any means. OOC it is a conlang that we all made together, but IC it’s just another everyday language that isn’t spoken all that much outside of its home country.
c) IC, it was the lingua franca of Forest, 500 years ago. This creole language was spoken by merchants and sailors across Forest’s ports. However, over time it was gradually replaced by English as the lingua franca of Forest, but it is still spoken in a few small pockets today.
Personally I think Option C is really interesting, as I personally am a huge fan of pidgin/creole conlangs (in fact I am in the process of making one right now). It also allows this conlang to be a historic lingua franca of Forest whilst still allowing English to be the current lingua franca. And it retains the possibility of this conlang still being spoken in a few places today, which means that nations could still speak it in limited contexts today if they wished.
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Also @Jutsa How did you get the map to change colors? Like is there a blank version of the Forest map that you can just fill in with whatever color you choose, or did you have to go back and painstakingly recolour everything yourself? I’ve been thinking about doing a map similar to yours showing Union of Forest membership (and it’s associate bodies), but I was wondering how to do it.
Einswenn, Jutsa, Mount Seymour, Daarwyrth, and 7 othersRuinenlust, Lord Dominator, Terrabod, Northern Wood, Nation of ecologists, Difinbelk, and Thrything
Hey, if you can't beat them, join them. ;)
(seriously if anyone's a frenzied map-loving impatient participant of the myriad it's me xD)
Yes, please do. All that being said I'll go over all of the applicants and ask everyone if they want any territory that was removed from CTE member nations (IF that's happening >.>) Should an overlap arise, I'm sure we can work it out.
Ooo... that sounds exciting! Too bad I haven't bothered with grammar or lexicon yet, but hey at least I'm finally content with the phonology! (Although its syllable structure is making me seriously rethink the orthography, we'll see. I'll probably keep it just to make it more ridiculous.)
I really like options A and C, myself... very nice ideas :D
Believe me I painstakingly changed every colour manually. Was a bit of a pain selecting the right rivers and national boundaries (often multiples) and islands and changing them to the right color (particularly with the tri-statt maps where very few nations actually have the same exact color), but the eye drop tool is my friend. This also entailed comparing each nation's stats and adjusting the color value of that stat to match where in the percentage range they fell.
Like I said I spent way too much time on these xD
edit: Also I seriously had no idea who owned the island between Lord Dominator and Turbeaux... so I just assumed, since it was the same colour as Void Territories, that it might as well belonged to them? >.> I'm perfectly fine changing that if it belongs to either of them, or someone else.
Speaking of which, 
Lord Dominator would you like to keep your nation on the map as-is, remove it, or transfer it over to Domination industrial enterprises?
Edit 2: Oops missed this:
Omg yes! I actually thought about this but never went anywhere with it hehe... might also be interesting to, even if not in the roleplay, also color in (or badge) members of the Forest government somehow. If you want to do it, feel free (albeit it's a bit tricky sometimes), but otherwise I'd be delighted making one.
Also if you want to be a cartographer too let me know xD
Ruinenlust, Terrabod, Middle Barael, and Nation of ecologists
Can’t wait to see Jutsa in action and can't wait to see the map of UoF. It’s really thrilling.
Jutsa, Mount Seymour, Daarwyrth, Ruinenlust, and 5 othersTerrabod, Middle Barael, Nation of ecologists, Forest Virginia, and Thrything
That's actually really cool because personal/"national" conlangs usually are only something for yourself and spotlighting some of them would bring a little more attention to them (not for a specific purpose, but simply because it's nice).
Maybe I simply don't quite get your point here, but I think keeping English as our Forestian lingua franca and, additionally, introducing a second language which doesn't affect anybody is not a contradiction. Nobody would have to adjust anything in their nation.
I like your option C, and creole languages are really exciting. However, creoles usually involve some kind of domination (at least in the real world, and maybe some wouldn't like that) and I think it could be at least challenging to agree on suitable substrate and superstrate languages. So, let me introduce narrative D ;)
D) The language was spoken by the mysterious people that inhabited Forest before 2005 and that had already been gone when Devdan arrived. Our knowledge of it is based on a vast variety of written records they left behind. In order to commemorate those people, (some) official regional documents are still translated to that ancient language but no nation is forced to use it in any way.
We could somehow incorporate the language in Forest's regional history this way.
Jutsa, Ruinenlust, Middle Barael, Nation of ecologists, and 1 otherDifinbelk
Forest's regional history is OOC and will stay that way.
At the risk of repeating what Verdant Haven has already said on the topic, it's really important we make clear the distinction between OOC Forest and IC Forest. We're largely an OOC region, and as such our Constitution will always remain exclusively an OOC document that binds players as a kind of regional rulebook - for example, it tells the player that has been elected Forest Keeper what they can and cannot do in that role. There's no issue with you translating the Constitution into your own conlang and using that as part of your own national lore, but I think it would be a mistake to blur the lines between OOC Forest and IC Forest for everyone else here whether they're interested in RPing or not.
I think it could also be problematic to start making assumptions about our IC regional history since that by its very nature means you're telling other RPers what their history is. Of course, our regional RPs are run by Middle Barael, so it's up to them to make such decisions - though to my knowledge they have tried to impose on others' lore as little as possible.
In any case, I think it's clear that any such assumptions belong solely in one of our regional RPs and nowhere else.
Einswenn, Jutsa, Mount Seymour, Daarwyrth, and 6 othersRuinenlust, Lord Dominator, Uan aa Boa, Middle Barael, Nation of ecologists, and Garbelia
Don't be shy, drop the name (only if ya remember it obv.)
I'd go for either A or C
Jutsa, Ruinenlust, Middle Barael, and Nation of ecologists
If you insist. It was called The Girl of Ink and Stars, by Kiran Millwood Hargrave. :)
Jutsa, Ruinenlust, Nation of ecologists, Garbelia, and 1 otherDifinbelk
Very much what Terrabod said here, in regard to things such as Option C. I realize I'm not in UoF, but that's partly because my own lore is developed enough that things like this simply aren't compatible. I've got 1000 years of history written and mapped in published factbooks, and am sitting on spreadsheets and documents containing close to 800 geographic place names, 200 historic figures, and a number of government structures and traditions heavily based on the various linguistic traditions I've already established for the settlers that first came to my lands long ago. Whether it's Count Sebastian I Harven founding Harventia in 1006 b.p., Langravin Greta Raabe establishing a woman's right to rule in the Landgraviate period of Diverre in 836 b.p., or somebody more recent like Grand Duke Skandar IV of Macota-Viridi who came to the throne in 422 b.p. with the same name as three of his predecessors, the first of whom reigned as Skandar close to 350 years prior - all of that is already written.
Basically, it's a tough sell to tell people their history. Many players already know their history. Looking at thing as new constructs or current developments is a much safer route, and I suspect would be far more likely to get buy-in from potential participants.
Einswenn, Jutsa, Mount Seymour, Ruinenlust, and 5 othersUan aa Boa, Terrabod, Middle Barael, Nation of ecologists, and Difinbelk
I've read it. Good book.
I'd prefer A or B, so I can use it without any history alteration, and still have the option to speak any weird, linguistically disgusting thing as a main Garbelery language.
Chan island, Jutsa, Ruinenlust, Terrabod, and 2 othersMiddle Barael, and Nation of ecologists
Ok, please forgive me but I've only recently joined this region and I still have to familiarise myself with its IC and OOC structures. I now understand the irritated tone of your message and far be it from me to offend anybody by trying to contribute something.
So, I think my idea is off the general table, right? Referring to my inexperience with this region, 
Middle Barael, I'd like to ask whether it would be something for the UoF? As far as I understand, the UoF is more open to RP than the region as a whole. Would my idea be more feasible there without restricting anybody?
Jutsa, Mount Seymour, Ruinenlust, Northern Wood, and 2 othersMiddle Barael, and Nation of ecologists
Nobody is "offended" or "irritated" here; just unequivocal.
Daarwyrth, Middle Barael, and Nation of ecologists
«12. . .2,1922,1932,1942,1952,1962,1972,198. . .2,6502,651»
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