His Majesty has indicated he will be happy to issue the honours tomorrow, and has already gotten the list of recipients.

-NRH

On behalf of the dean, the Oblivious Auditing Fellow is assigned to handle this request.  If in need of any assistance, I'd advise asking the Rouge Elephant Herald, @Dr. Txec Róibeard dal Nordselvă, Esq., O.SPM, SMM , for advice.

-NRH

Upon discovery that there is a weird heraldric term for crows/ravens, the "corbie," I am obligated by our rules to amend the prospective enhancement of my blazon to use that term instead.  Just a quick note.

No one likely, and it's been a day.  On behalf of the Dean, you are welcomed into the College as the Oblivious Auditing Fellow.  Soon you will hopefully have a chance to work with a prospective armiger and assist their request, and upon successful completion and agreement of the College, Dean, and Squirrel King of Arms, proceed on to a standard fellowship.  Congratulations.

-NRH

Yeah, I'm going to try to do this every month or two, according to the rigorous schedule of "whenever I feel like it."  Probably an even mix of SCA, modern, and historical stuff.

-NRH

The Serafimerorden, or Royal Order of the Seraphim of the Kingdom of Sweden, is that country's foremost order of chivalry.  At this time, it is only awarded to the royal family or heads of state.  It also has an unusual memorial method: at the time of awarding it is given directly to the recipient in medal form (if given twice, also with a chain), and a heraldic artist is formally contracted to emblazon a beautiful version of an achievement with the award included.  But the resulting painting is put into storage, and it is only eventually hung up in sacred Riddarholm Church after the recipient's death, like so:


Here is a selection of some recent grants, as recreated by artists on Wikimedia and Wappenwiki.  I have chosen some of my favorites as well as some of my least favorite (Aníbal Cavaco Silva is pretty bold to pale the national arms of his country, Portugal, quartered with the badge of the presidential award the Sash of the Three Orders, on his own achievement -- but maybe it was emblazoned that way to show he's there on behalf of his country?).  Notice the seraphim heads on the chain -- a head weirdly surrounded by a ton of wings, per the Biblical description.


-NRH

I don't think there will be any objections, but I'll ask anyway for the sake of form: does anyone object to admitting S:reu Vilaçafat to our ranks as an OAF?

-NRH

This also should be added to el Lexhatx, not be a standalone statute.

Please give one of my assigned seats to Tric'hard Lenxheir.  I have consulted with my party and with Tric'hard, and reached an agreement that will allow him to participate in the legislature, under terms that will allow him to keep to his conscience and the Talossan National Congress to keep faith with our voters.

Quote from: Caleb Frenibuerg on April 16, 2022, 05:10:00 PM
I'm not sure how to word this. But it is with very heavy regret that I resign my Cosa seats. My mental health has taken a turn for the worst in the last few weeks and I'm struggling to cope with Talossa related stuff. I do not want to disappoint anyone but I sadly have no other choice. I appreciate the opportunity I have been given, and hope I am still welcome in this wonderful community.

You are more than welcome -- know that we're here for you!  If you ever want to just talk about anything, please PM me and I'll send you my number.  Maybe I can help, or maybe we can just chat about what's on your mind.  Take care of yourself, first and foremost!

Well, that's cool :)  What a banner day!  First my eldest, Adiens, finds the afikomen at Seder... and now this!

Quote from: Antonio Montagnha, Ed. D. on April 14, 2022, 09:12:04 AM

Oof.  Not a surprise to see these trends, but still really sad.  Hope we can turn this around.

Quote from: Ian Plätschisch on April 15, 2022, 03:13:29 PM
I have answered the Baron's request for immigration statistics in various other places, but to do so again:
-The list of citizens (along with date of citizenship) is available here: http://www.talossa.ca/files/citizens.php
-The Immigration board is essentially a list of immigration applications

I do not think that generating reports would provide much more insight. If anyone disagrees, all the data you would need to make the reports is above.

Yeah, I didn't think the answer would change.  I still think these metrics are important and the Government should keep track of them, but I guess that will have to wait at least eight more months.  Thank you for answering the question, even if it was only to affirm your previous stance; though I disagree, it's important that we're all clear on where everyone stands.

Quote from: Ian Plätschisch on April 15, 2022, 03:19:30 PM

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on April 14, 2022, 07:22:20 PM
Well, considering how you just voted for Breneir's bill last term which gives out the seats in this very thread, I sort of assumed that you'd seen the light.  It's pretty obvious that new citizens want to get involved as they get interested, here they are asking to get involved, and we should make it possible for all of them to do so.  But whatever, it doesn't really matter.

This is a bit annoying. I'm sure you know that the FreeDems were not upset over the prospect of S:reu Lenxheir being able to get involved. We didn't like that it appeared to be a cheap attempt to get another supporter for the TNC, even if that's not what you intended. Don't misrepresent us.

I don't see anywhere that I asked him to join the party, asked him to obey instructions and exchange for the seat, or anything else. All I offered was that we would like to help him have fun by holding a seat in the legislature. I very much doubt that he is so cheaply bought.

I really hope everything is okay with Dama Litz :(

Quote from: Antonio Montagnha, Ed. D. on April 15, 2022, 09:11:27 AM
If you believe the interviews from people like Ronald D Moore who were intimately involved in the creation and development Star Trek in the late 1990's, the original intent of Star Trek Voyager was to show the resilience of federation values in all the humanistic glory when ultimately challenged by being cut off from the resources and the superior numbers of the Federation in an area of space that was far more brutal and challenging. This is certainly where the series attempts to go for a brief while but it completely abandons this premise and its ongoing implications to its incredible detriment. Moore went on to run a strikingly similar premise in the Battlestar Galactica's 2004 reboot, a show that embraced this idea until its last 30 minutes. That is a different essay.

This is really interesting and I hadn't thought of this -- yeah, Voyager really could have been the brilliance that was early BSG.  Ragged and on the run, trying to balance their stated ideals with the practical constraints of their situation... good stuff.  Of course, BSG pretty much tanked once they started uncovering the final five, and the Starbuck thing was terrible, but the first few seasons are some of the best sci-fi that's ever been on television, comparable even to Farscape.  But the tension between Starfleet and Maquis only lasted a few episodes.  After that, it's hard to even guess at the point of Chakotay.  He just became the first of several "what do we do with them" characters, a list that included Neelix after the second season, Kes after the first few episodes, and Harry Kim right from the first second of the show.

Quote from: Antonio Montagnha, Ed. D. on April 15, 2022, 09:11:27 AMAdd to that after two or three seasons coming to the barrier that was Borg space, and after going ahead and adding Jeri Ryan as seven of nine (which was originally perceived as eye candy but was really one of the greatest narrative innovations of the show) having to backtrack and build a new federation out of all the societies they had encountered in order to take on the Borg. What an ultimate victory for federation and ultimately humanistic values that could have been.

The show just became the Borg Show after Seven arrived.  And that was fine, since she was an extremely interesting character for the same reasons that Data was interesting: she let the writers tell stories about humanity on a fairly blank slate, instead of as a culture clash.

I do like Voyager, though.  I rewatched it once, whereas I have never even been tempted to return to Enterprise.