It must be understood Ben Madison never, ever meant for "the Berber Project" to be taken seriously.  It was always a tongue-in-cheek mythos and more of an experiment on Ben's part.

With Ben's wordsmithing, historical knowledge, and propoganda-bent, "The Berber Project" became a masterpiece in historical revisionism so convincing in at least one scholarly work, it has actually been cited as a legitimate source!

Ben pointed out that incident years ago, but I cannot remember where it is.

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on March 15, 2025, 04:40:41 PMJust voted Prog - database worked great!

I like Prog, too, but disco's pretty cool.

SoS: Please put into the subject of this thread something to the effect of "election for 61st Cosâ" to give future researchers clarity.

Cosâ: ¡Avant! (AVANT)
60RZ06 Për
60RZ21: Për
Fiova: M. Schivâ, G. Higraff, and T. dal Nâva

Hats off to SoS da Schir for a smooth voting process and to MPF for his continued support and dedication to the Talossa Database System.  What you two do for us and what Txec and others did for us in the past in this regard is more than appreciated. - GV

Thanks, Max, for your initiative on this.

59RZ20: Contrâ
59RZ21: Abstain
59RZ22: Për
59RZ23: Për
59RZ24: Për

GV, Fiova

Perhaps we will find new ways to motivate them.

Oh dear, oh dear...  lol

My concern is bringing together a final, absolute version of the MPF Database we can preserve for generations.

GV, Royal Archivist

RZ19 Për

January 2025 Clark - Happy new year, all!

GV, Fiova

Beautiful arms!

Talossa has outlived Ben's involvement by nearly twenty years.  We are five years not only from the fiftieth anniversary, but also "outlapping" Ben's own time of involvement, which is unbelievable to me.

Three people are directly responsible for this happy state of Talossa's enduring: John Woolley, Fritz von Buchholtz, and Miestrâ Schivâ.

John's and Fritz's efforts are well-known, but politics among other things has obscured Miestrâ's critical contributions to our national life: she kept the 2004-2012 Republic of Talossa intact, doing more than anyone to preserve that community, which was critical to making reunision happen.

I personally thank her for her energy which at times ca. 2010 was directly responsible for my not falling off the Talossan log completely and forever.

Happy anniversary, all!  May Talossan endure another forty-five years and longer than that.

- GV

John Woolley and the late Fritz von Buchholtz must be mentioned in the same breath.  In the spring and summer of 2005, neither could have stood up to Ben Madison alone and have the inadvertent, but potent result of persuading Tomás Garçeir to take his own stand against Ben regarding keeping the Talossan language accessible to all, a fully-unintended result that directly led to the unintended result of Ben's and Amy's abdication and renunciation, liberating the Kingdom and driving a stake into the heart of the 2004-2012 Republic, even if the Republic took eight years to realize this and come to its senses.

John may have had ulterior motives for welcoming us back into the Kingdom in 2011-2012, but as the 2005-2011 Kingdom was becoming moribound and stagnant (nothing compared to the Republic's woes, I must add), it was in his and the Kingdom's best interest to let Reunision happen.  When push came to shove, John did not stand in the way of progress, even if by doing so, he might have inadvertently driven his own stake into the heart of the 2005-2011 "SCA-Talossa" culture under which a lot of Talossans were still having a lot of fun.

Two incredibly difficult and ultimately-positive events from John's reign come to mind where his leadership and mere presence on the Throne was critical.

First, we had a citizen convicted in a court of law of crimes unbecoming a Talossan.  When this came to light, the entire country ran around like a chicken with its head cut off at a PR disaster that never came to pass.  When we were all understandably pining for this citizen to be expelled immediately, John remained calm, quiet, and advocated for this citizen's removal by legal and appropriate means, so long as it was done in a timely and orderly fashion.  In an orderly and timely fashion, this removal came to pass.

Secondly, in June 2019, Ben Madison made a serious attempt at persuading the country to let him back in.  I was one of the Senators at that time who would have blocked a për vote on his citizenship-restoration, should it have ever come to pass, but in the end, I will always suspect Ben knew John never forgets, even if he is not vindictive.  The prospect of having to deal with John Woolley, not to mention a vociferous cadre of Talossans who also remembered, caused Ben to think twice and persuaded him to leave Wittenberg and not make contact with us any longer.

John Woolley has always loved Talossa.  Even if he has certain ideas of how Talossa should be run, he has still loved Talossa.  He served with competence and for a long time, before that serving brilliantly as Secretary of State.  He and Fritz both are titans of Talossan history. 

John, as much as you have dropped some large eggs, they have only ever been in the full and sole context of Talossa.  I still thank you for everything, and from all I've heard about you, I continue to wish I'd known you, Manus, and your families outside Talossa, even as I've known a number of you within.

Gödefrïeu Válcadác'h, PLN
Dean of the Senäts and former Mençéi
26th and 29th Prime Minister of Talossa

Quote from: King Txec on December 04, 2024, 10:49:21 AMAh yes, I do remember that now. I only wish I'd remembered when I issued the proclamation on Monarchy Day though.

I'm sure Flo didn't care.  :-)

Profound gratitude for four years of utter dependability.  Best wishes for your reign to come - GV

60RZ17 Për
60RZ18 Contrâ

- GV, Fiova

Quote from: Sir Txec dal Nordselvă, UrB on October 31, 2024, 03:02:33 PMI would suggest that a little grace should be given to the king. After all, he has been the monarch for 17 years and I can rightly imagine that it would not be an easy thing to give up. When my time comes as king, I imagine I will likely face a similar dilemma some years down the road as well.

Fair enough.  If I were in John's shoes, I'd abdicate on 26 December of this year right at the exact hour Ben first declared independence.  That would be really cool.