Well, when I set up the merchandise, I found that we could basically just order based off the design of the Sac and Fox Nation flag.  So you could just buy one of those.

We have a store for merchandise - we get a percentage when it's used. Unfortunately, I'm not sure any of the products are still available.

https://talossaware.printify.me/

You can probably find a similar flag somewhere else.

PROG 99
URL 65
IDT 12
GREEN 12
IND GREEN 12

I claim a seat.

Our law states, "If the Maximally Magnificent Majordomo does not issue the Assembly Call by the national Balloting Day, any citizen of Maritiimi-Maxhestic may issue it."

Consider it hereby issued: please claim a seat in the Assembly, if you wish one.

Let's see if it works for Mic'halgh, too -- maybe one day or the other is better for him.  I'm pretty free and clear.

Okay, so my wife's big event (and some disagreements) derailed us a bit.  But this weekend, I'm pretty free and clear.  Would that work for people to do a more casual chat, generally?

Great work!  Thank you!

What has Talossa meant to me, to paraphrase the old question?  How has it impacted me?  A recent discussion brought this to mind, and I thought it bore a little more thought.

To me, Talossa is about doing fun and interesting stuff.  It gives me the push I might never have gotten to try new things.  And since I've been a Talossan for half my life, it's been an incredibly enriching experience.  And when I think of what Talossa has given me, I think about the things I've learned along the way... and the opportunities out there for everyone else!

This is obviously going to talk about my own experience and accomplishments, but that's okay -- I am a candidate for seneschal, after all, and so that's not a crazy thing to do!


Law
I probably would have always been interested in the law, even if it weren't for Talossa.  But where else but Talossa am I going to have a chance to actually draft legislation?

I've been working on legal stuff from the start.  Obviously, the world is very different from when I first immigrated, and so my thinking on some things has changed over time.  But thankfully, I've been fairly consistent about my principles.  At times, that put me at odds with people on "my side"...  it's funny to look back in time at things like the secret ballot bill, and see me arguing with people in my own party to get it passed!

Some of my legislation has been hard-won compromises with others, like the law that created the civil service or the law to reform the succession and save the monarchy.  And some have just been pretty much my own show, like when I took dozens of laws and created our modern legal code, el Lexhatx.

If you want to get involved in legislating, then you can just do it!  Not every bill is going to be perfect.  You might run up against some opposition, and you might need to compromise.  Sometimes you're going to fail.  But if you persist, you can create change.

So you should get out there and try it!

• Get seats in the Ziu, so you can sponsor and cosponsor legislation.
• Read bills, and see if they make sense.  Look at the little things -- who is supposed to do what, and how?
• When you notice a problem in a bill, say specifically what's wrong, and suggest changes.
• If there's something in Talossan law that you want to fix, you can just take a shot at writing a bill to fix it.  Listen to the feedback you get!

Media
I had never done short-form video before just this past month!  (And maybe it shows, lol)  But after that language Tiktok went viral, I thought it might be a fun thing to try.  So I just... did it!  Filmed some short clips, and experimented with editing them together, and started up the whole Progressive Alliance account.  It's been another crazy thing I never would have tried if it hadn't been for Talossa!

Or to hearken back in time, I never even opened desktop publishing software before I started the newspaper Beric'ht Talossan.  And then I just went ahead and did it with the Scribus software.  In the two years we were publishing, we built the biggest staff of any Talossan organization (bigger than the entire government!) and never missed a deadline.

You're never going to match a professional, but you can become a skilled amateur in so many different flavors of media, if you're interested.  And because Talossa is such a small country, you can be a big voice in the media!

So you should get out there and try it!

• You can start writing a political analysis column right here on Wittenberg, if you'd like, although people might not consider it to be "media."  But you could also start your own blog about Talossa.  Free website makers include Blogger and Wordpress.
• You can start a YouTube or Tiktok account and vlog about Talossa.  Talk about your experience or analyze political developments.
• Social media accounts are free and numerous.  Don't use Twitter, but Bluesky or Instagram are very accessible and let you do things like memes and commentary about Talossa.

Computers
I'm not sure I would have ever even thought about making a website to teach language skills, if it hadn't been for Talossa.  It's not the first website I've made for Talossa, either.  Getting deep into learning how to operate Wordpress software has paid off in my life other times, too, and it was Talossa that nudged me into that skill.

And while I already had some experience with editing wiki pages on Wikipedia, it was Talossa that pushed me into learning how deeper things work, like templates.  When I first set up the early infrastructure for TalossaWiki -- crazy to think that there was a time when we didn't have that! -- it took me on a surprisingly long journey.

As a confession, I'll say that my graphic design skills are still not very good.  But they can get the job done, at least, and I only learned GIMP and Inkscape because of Talossa and the Coletx!  You can do that too!

So you should get out there and try it!

• You can edit most of the wiki to add information, context, or new points!  It's pretty easy to figure out with the WYSIWYG editor, but there's also a course on wikicode that you can do in just an afternoon.
• Starting a simple blog for a media project requires almost no computer knowledge, but to do something fancier you can get deep into learning basic HTML, CSS, or website software.  And there's a ton of beginner guides on YouTube to get you started.
• GIMP and Inkscape are free if you want to design some Talossan images for others to use, and future Talossans can benefit from your work forever!

Of course, Talossa is more than just the things I've learned, the accomplishments I've had, or the opportunities it presents.  It's also about the friends and the community, the ideals and the struggle, the traditions and the culture.  Over time, you can make some close allies and some fun inside jokes.  But when I think about the impact Talossa has had on my life, I can't ignore that so many of my current skills come from my efforts as an enthusiastic Talossan amateur.  If you give it a chance, Talossa can have that impact on you, too.

We're not pledging that we feel honor-bound to work with literally everyone about literally everything, but obviously no one really thought we were, lol.  An election is a heck of a thing, I guess. 

I guess this is the part where I'm supposed to get into an angry fight or whatever.  I'm not going to, sorry.  It doesn't sound fun or interesting, and I don't think it's what the people want.  A big part of our campaign is that we don't want these angry speeches or the attempts to start a fight.  We don't think anyone does, really.  And while I understand that they're part of the URL brand, we're just not interested.

To me, Talossa is about doing fun and interesting stuff.  It gives me the push I might never have gotten to try new things.  In just the last year, I've had that experience so many times!

• I had never done short-form video before just this past month!  (And maybe it shows, lol)  But after that language Tiktok went viral, I thought it might be a fun thing to try.  So I just... did it!  Filmed some short clips, and experimented with editing them together, and started up the whole Progressive Alliance account.  It's been another crazy thing I never would have tried, I think!
• I'm not sure I would have ever even thought about making a website to teach language skills, if it hadn't been for Talossa.  And Tafi, of course, who made it possible at all.  And even aside from the lessons themselves, I learned some new things about HTML.  It's amazing!
• Or to hearken back to an old one, I never even opened desktop publishing software before I started Beric'ht Talossan.  And then I just went ahead and did it, and it ran for two years.

Talossa gives you a chance and an excuse to do things you might never try.  And I can't wait to share that with more people.

The Independent Greens are a different party, led by Garth Spencer.  We remain open to working with anyone from the Green party that we can, with the obvious exception of their leader.  Everyone knows I take the whole thing with Breneir about as seriously as anyone... look at the names on the bottoms of the First Step Towards Decency and the Consequences Act.  Look at the thread for where they were developed.  It is dishonest to pretend I do not take this seriously.

It would be nice for a day to go by without an angry URL denunciation of one kind or another.  Everything's a sign, everything's an outrage, everything is so serious that it merits a little creativity with the truth.

Vote Progressive if you're ready for a change from... well, all of this.

Finally a victory!  Tric'hard, your advice really helped, thank you.  I guess in theory I should have known that a goalkeeper is an important position to fill on my team.

My hair is sticking up.  What do I even hire a hair and makeup team for?

A big thank you to all of our supporters -- we're here for you and we're here for Talossa!

We've talked a lot about our policies and plans, like ending the government's power to secretly control immigration.  But what about our culture... what's our time in office going to look like?  We've been accused of being willing to work with all kinds of people, including His Grace the former king and other parties like the Independent Greens or the IDT.  And to that, we say... guilty!

We will work with you!  No matter what your politics might be, we all have our love of Talossa in common -- and so there's definitely something we can work together on!  We are happy to work with the existing URL, the new super-liberal Independent Greens, or the new super-conservative IDT, because we think there's probably things we have in common with all of them.  Even if our values don't always align in every way, we're going to find some project or idea that we both love.  It'd be pretty shabby to scorn half of the country, just in order to win an election, so we won't do it!

Let's try new things!  Do you have a wacky idea that you're a bit shy to share?  Do you have an ambitious plan to do something crazy?  Share it with Talossa, and as long as it's not hurting anything, we'll try to help!  Talossa is about doing the stuff you want to do.  It gives you an opportunity to be a presence on a national stage and change the whole country's conversation... and that only happens when folks try out their ideas!

Let's have fun!  Talossa is a space for you to have fun and enjoy yourself, and also to learn new things.  We'd love to have you share the things that you like, like your music or your hobbies.  And of course, it's really important that people feel safe and welcome, which is why we've coordinated so much on things like the Consequences Act. 

Let's move Talossa forward -- vote for the Progressive Alliance!

Quote from: Tierçéu Rôibeardescù on November 16, 2025, 10:12:59 AMI started a solo forgotten Realms/bg3 themed campaign for my wife, using DM guild book domestic adventureurs guide, which shes yet to realise shes actually playing stardew valley xD

lol!  I think solo games must be hard -- although, on the other hand, there's no question about who's the star of the show!

A.  Progressive Alliance

B.  Alexandreu Davinescu

C.  Non.

D.  Yes, I'd like to claim a seat.

BG3 is such a fantastic game, and really the best facsimile for a real game that you could find.  I'm glad that it's gotten you into it... I've been working to getting an Honour Mode resist Dark Urge game done, saving all of the gnomes and everything, but keep coming up short.

One-shots are great, but there's such a limit on developing your character.  You come in with a concept and bounce off of the plot and other characters, but they don't get to change and grow, you know?  In my current game, we're about to hit the climactic moment they've been building towards for more than a year (we're thirty-two sessions in, from level 1 to level 7) and it's been so fun to watch them evolve.

If I did another Zoom one-shot, would that interest you?  I haven't done much Zoom DMing since the pandemic, but I am sure I still have the chops and dndbeyond has a decent map tool.

Posting a clean version of this post for Balloting Day -- and regretting I didn't choose a better cover photo for the video than this doofy one.

On this final day before Balloting Day, I thought it might be a good idea to highlight some of our priorities for the upcoming term.  We're going to try to push for these things to get done, even if we don't win a majority -- just like we saw this past term, where we highlighted the unwieldy immigration form and demanded common-sense changes.  We've been a very effective Opposition, but the more seats we have, the more effective we can be.

One of our policies is to reject negative and angry politics.  You've seen the Seneschal's speech about how they are the "Good" and we are the "Bad," and you've seen the URL emails with lengthy personal attacks.  And while that might work for them, we're not going to take the bait.  The URL is a party of decent people who want to help Talossa, and we just have different visions about how to achieve that.  No matter how you vote this term: if you're a Talossan patriot, you're one of the Good ones.  That's our pledge to you.

We urge transparency in government.  The government should not have the power to secretly control who's even allowed to apply to immigrate... we need the bipartisan Public Process Act!  And let's make sure this power was never abused by anyone of any party or government.  If it was, the people deserve to know.  And on a different note, laws like this should be accessible to everyone -- let's get some regular citizens to read over our laws and figure out what's hard to understand!

We also want to make it easier for everyone to "do Talossa."  That means fixing up our website so that the links all work and the merchandise is available.  It means being vocal and supporting everyone's efforts -- the Seneschal should be an active booster of fun stuff, promoting it!  It means making space to be silly, and never yucking someone's yum.  And let's make sure we have plenty of people to have fun with us: let's turn our lucky breaks into sustained growth, and end these periods of zero immigration for months at a time.

There's a video version of this on our Tiktok, because we also want to put a human face on Talossa.  Let's get away from just message boards, since that's more interesting and makes it possible for us to reach a broader audience.  The people agree -- that's why the current leader in our poll asks for "regular Zoom meetings with His Majesty and the Seneschal."  We can make that happen!

It's time to move Talossa forward -- let's vote for the Progressive Alliance!

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on November 14, 2025, 02:23:59 PMFairly said -- let me say that I can personally commit to a chat with any and all, either way -- and it would be great to have you there, Your Majesty.  Here's a Zoom link for tomorrow morning at 11 TST.

I'm having some scheduling problems today -- my wife is helping produce a big weekend event and she's asked for my help at 11 TST.  @King Txec and @Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be , I hope you understand!  Would some time around 3pm TST (4pm EST, 1pm ST, 9pm GMT) be okay?