Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on Yesterday at 07:46:25 PMCan we recruit Chris?

I immediately offered him an ambassador's account, but of course I assume he must know that he would be welcome if he wanted to immigrate!

As many of you know, we have for some time been missing Baroness Litz, a longtime Talossan who has served the country in many different ways (as Seneschal, Justice, and all-around reasonable person).  She became incommunicado months ago, and we feared the worst since we knew she'd had some health troubles.  Today, His Majesty and I received an email giving us good news from her brother, who also asked us to share it with others who might be concerned.

QuoteMy name is Chris Naylor. I'm Lily's brother. Most of you, of course, know her as Baroness Litz Cjantscheir.

Some time ago, Lily gave me a number of your email addresses.

She asked me to keep them safe and told me that, when the time came, she wanted me to write to you.

Neither of us really knew when that would be.

But, I feel that time has come.

And thankfully, I get to write the email we both hoped I would.

Lily is getting better.

Those four words look very ordinary written down.

To me, they are anything but.

After the better part of two years of cancer, treatment, hospitals, scans, setbacks, uncertainty, good news followed by frightening news, and days when simply getting through the day was enough, being able to say she's getting better feels enormous.

We've learned to be careful with hope.

There have been times when things seemed to be improving and we were frightened to believe it.

Times when we stopped looking too far ahead.

Times when life became about getting through the next appointment, the next treatment, the next scan, the next result.

So I'm not telling you the journey is over.

It isn't.

There is still treatment, monitoring and healing ahead.

But something has changed.

She's stronger.

She's eating better.

She's awake for longer.

She's laughing more.

She's arguing with me more, which I'm choosing to regard as an excellent clinical sign.

And, perhaps most importantly of all, she's talking about the future again.

Little by little, I'm getting my sister back.

And little by little, I'm seeing Litz come back too.

That's partly why it feels right to write now, just as the election to the 63rd Cosă has finished.

For quite some time I've had another job alongside being Lily's brother.

I've been her unofficial Talossan correspondent.

In other words, I've been lurking on Witt.

When Lily became too unwell to keep up with Talossa herself, she asked me to look occasionally and tell her what was happening.

So I did.

Then occasionally became regularly.

And during this election, I've been trying to follow everything and report back to her.

I have now followed an entire Talossan general election and still don't properly understand Talossan politics.

Lily tells me this means I'm fitting in nicely.

But somewhere along the way, those little Talossa updates became much more important than either of us expected.

For nearly two years, cancer has tried to dominate everything.

So many conversations with my sister became about appointments, scans, treatment, medication, results, sleep, food and pain.

"How are you feeling?"

"Did you sleep?"

"Have you eaten?"

"What did the doctor say?"

"When's the next appointment?"

"Are you okay?"

They're questions you ask because you love someone.

But after long enough, you realise how much you miss asking them about absolutely anything else.

Cancer has a horrible way of making someone's world very small.

Then I'd sit beside Lily and say:

"Right. Talossa update."

And suddenly we'd be talking about an election.

Or something somebody had written on Witt.

Or an argument I didn't understand.

I'd mention someone's name and she'd smile.

I'd confidently explain something and she'd tell me I'd got it completely wrong.

Sometimes she'd laugh.

Sometimes she'd roll her eyes.

Sometimes I'd receive a lengthy explanation of some piece of Talossan history that apparently made the whole thing perfectly obvious.

It generally didn't.

And sometimes she'd simply say:

"That's Talossa."

But for those few minutes, something wonderful happened.

Cancer wasn't the most important thing in the room.

...

And that brings me to what Lily particularly wanted me to tell you.

Thank you.

Not the polite sort of thank you people put at the end of an email.

A real one.

From Lily.

From me.

From the people who love her.

Thank you.

For every message.

Every email.

Every prayer.

Every good wish.

Every little joke.

Every time somebody asked:

"How's Litz?"

Every time somebody remembered her name.

Every bit of ordinary Talossan nonsense that gave us something else to talk about.

You may have sent her a two-line message and forgotten about it five minutes later.

She didn't.

You may have thought asking after her was nothing.

It wasn't.

You may have quietly remembered her in a prayer and assumed it couldn't possibly make much difference.

It did.

The little things mattered.

...

Hopefully, if things continue moving in the right direction, this will be the last email you receive from me about Lily.

And I mean that in the happiest possible way.

Because I hope the next person you hear from won't be Litz's brother giving you another update.

I hope it will be Litz herself.

I hope one day, perhaps during the life of this new Cosă, you open Witt and suddenly see a familiar name:

Baroness Litz Cjantscheir

And after all these months of remembering her, praying for her, asking after her and quietly keeping her place, I hope she finally gets to type the four words she's been saving:

"Did I miss anything?"

And perhaps, after everything, there will only be one answer she really needs:

"Welcome home, Litz."

God, I hope I get to see that.

Until then, she sends her love, her gratitude and her very best wishes to you all.

She misses you more than you probably realise.

And she is determined to find her way back.

Thank you for remembering my sister while she fought to remember the person she was before cancer.

Thank you for helping her hold on until she could begin looking forward again.

And thank you, from a brother who will never be able to adequately repay the kindness you've shown somebody he loves very much, for simply being there.

With all my heart, thank you.

Chris Naylor
Lily's brother

P.S. Lily insists that after following an entire Talossan election I should know how to finish one of these properly by now.

So:

¡Viva Talossa!

On behalf of the Progressive Alliance, I want to extend our thanks to our voters for their support.  Remarkably, our vote share is almost identical to the last election -- 44%!  We are grateful for you, and we will be your voice in the Ziu.  We will fight for you and deliver for you.

But we're not satisfied, and we vow to work on your behalf and win over those who weren't on board... plus recruit new blood to the country for the benefit of all!

We would also like to congratulate the URL, which increased their share of the vote, as well as (remarkably) the IG/AS, which doubled their share of the vote.  We hope to work productively with them in order to help Talossa meet the challenges ahead.  We have already begun internal discussions and a vote about the best way we can work with others.

Quote from: Lorenz Friedkin-Annen on August 31, 2026, 06:52:07 PM

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on August 31, 2026, 06:41:15 PM

Quote from: Lorenz Friedkin-Annen on August 31, 2026, 06:29:13 PMAlso, I'm just curious, but did you have an original copy?

I did. I was a kid when I played it, but I played it on the original system. We rented it from a store called Blockbuster. This was a store that rented video game cartridges and things called VHS tapes.

I know what blockbuster is
I also know what VHS tapes are.
Just because I am not in your generation doesn't mean I am illiterate when it comes to older technology...
lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lol, I know. I was just being silly. I think probably anyone who knows about Earthbound is familiar with a lot of other millennial stuff!

Quote from: Lorenz Friedkin-Annen on August 31, 2026, 06:29:13 PMAlso, I'm just curious, but did you have an original copy?

I did. I was a kid when I played it, but I played it on the original system. We rented it from a store called Blockbuster. This was a store that rented video game cartridges and things called VHS tapes.

Quote from: Lorenz Friedkin-Annen on August 31, 2026, 11:46:40 AMThis post is kinda dead, but I'll answer.
I LOVE the soundtrack of Earthbound. I haven't ever heard any other music like it, which is sad...

That's such a good game, not least because of how it exists as a kindly-meant Japanese parody of America at the time.  I remember playing it for hours -- a long time ago!  How did you hear about it?

Quote from: Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be on August 30, 2026, 07:11:15 PMthe Chancery must have the final call.

When it comes to the question of infrastructure for Wittenberg, yes -- but that's intended to give the Chancery a free hand when it comes to implementing the technology.  I think when we talk about how to present ourselves to the world in terms of how we prioritize Wittenberg or other vehicles, though, that's the sort of major policy decision that belongs in the hands of the elected government.

It's also important to note that it would be outright foolish to treat this as anything other than an opportunity for collaboration.  The Secretary of State is in charge of our systems, and that means that Sir Luc has a tremendous amount of insight into best practices, possible problems, and what works best.  I think that it's wrong to just ask him to figure out how we should present our face to the world in all of its complexity, but it would be just as wrong to try to boss him around with demands.

Quote from: Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be on August 30, 2026, 07:11:15 PM

QuoteBy the way, I told Mic'haglh this but he may not have seen my message: the video he shared in your last mailer was marked private, so I don't think anyone can watch it.

I did see your message; while the video in question did already have multiple views (suggesting that the link was working), I have moved it to Unlisted to be safe.

Oh, good!  Private videos are still available to anyone you send them to by email, so it's possible that you sent it to others for vetting or something first, and that's why it already had multiple views.  But I thought you might want a heads-up that there was a problem and that most people would be unable to view it.

You guys have espoused a number of goals, and almost all of them are about changing the laws.  I highlighted one of them: getting rid of the Senäts as we know it, in order to make it an advisory body that can delay legislation or request revisions from the Cosa.  I highlighted that one in our last mailer because I think it'd be a serious mistake and that voters hate the idea.  But there's others: shrinking the Cosa down more, creating a new bureau for worldbuilding, making more micronational connections, changing the laws about the CRL, supporting the Democracy Act, and asking the Chancery what changes should be made to Wittenberg. 

I don't even disagree with some of these.  (Although I will say that I do not think it's appropriate for the Chancery to be the deciding agency on what the future of our message board or website should look like -- they should be consulted, but we're a democracy, and the elected government should set policy).  But five out of seven of them are about changing the laws.

I don't think there's anything wrong with a focus on legislation, especially since it's almost always been your own passion, Miestra.  And there's nothing wrong with having those as goals... changing the law was one of our own premiere goals in the last election!  You should own it and be proud, in my opinion.

By the way, I told Mic'haglh this but he may not have seen my message: the video he shared in your last mailer was marked private, so I don't think anyone can watch it.

Quote from: Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be on August 30, 2026, 10:35:52 AM

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on August 30, 2026, 09:24:06 AMI think you might be conflating two things. There's a difference between criticizing policies or ideas, and attacking people personally. We see some of that in this election, too, because the main criticism that I've seen of the Progs is noting how dominant I am when it comes to government activity.

It may be difficult to tell the difference between valid criticism of your government's record and personal attack when the line between individual and Government has been allowed to blur so much, but I can assure you, this is the former.

I was saying was that I didn't think that you guys had been engaging in a lot of nasty personal attacks this time around, for which I was grateful.

Quote from: Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be on August 30, 2026, 10:35:52 AMthe contrary, we've said very explicitly that the few and modest objectives your party is offering are generally acceptable, but that if one wants something a bit more forward-thinking, the URL is the correct choice. If we're offering any big criticism of these objectives, what we're noting is that the shift in tone between your previous platform of promising the world and this platform is the implicit recognition that last time, you bit off more than you could chew, and failed to deliver.

We've accomplished some pretty huge things this term, and I'm glad we have even more to go, plus some new ideas to keep moving things forward. I think we have just a different approach to governance (and campaigning), though.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on August 29, 2026, 04:25:38 PM

Quote from: Glüc on August 29, 2026, 04:30:39 AMThere hasn't been much election debate going on so far. Although admittedly I probably missed some of it due to not paying attention. I've read the mailers, but I think party leaders questioning each other about what and how they intend to do things (or for example how they would approach the next government formation) might be more informative.

This is one of those "can't win for losing" situations. In previous elections people have complained that Talossans are too mean and personal and combative. We were told explicitly that in the last election, the URL's sharp critiques of Progressive politics lost us the election. So this election we've made a special effort to pivot to constructive "this is what WE'LL do" stuff rather than bashing the Progs. And that's the wrong rock too, apparently :D

I think you might be conflating two things. There's a difference between criticizing policies or ideas, and attacking people personally. We see some of that in this election, too, because the main criticism that I've seen of the Progs is noting how dominant I am when it comes to government activity. And that's a completely fair critique, and it's usually true whenever I'm in government because I have a hyperabundance of energy and like to do a lot of stuff. It's certainly not coming off as nasty, when compared with the last election, when a lot of this kind of criticism was focused on my character personally. I'm grateful for that!

But that's different than saying that it would be a bad idea to establish physical embassies, or that it's unrealistic, or that people would hate it. That would be focusing on our policies and challenging them.

For myself, I think that comes from what seems to be a very fundamental difference in the approach of the two parties. Our party is overwhelmingly focused on building things and offering new programs, and the URL is focused on changing laws. That was true in the last election, as well. I don't think either of those approaches are wrong, but they are so different that they are different visions of government, more than different programs.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on August 29, 2026, 04:25:38 PMCan I also notice that there is a real problem implicit in Glüc's comment about "Miestră and AD" cooperating. The leader and Seneschal candidate of the URL is Mic'haglh Autófil. The extent to which Mic'haglh is not seen as a separate entity to myself is regrettable, and something we've been trying to counteract, but it seems that that can't happen until I leave Talossa altogether :D

I think the perception is that you provide a lot of the main energy for your party. You're on Witt easily twice as much as he is, so people just see a lot more of you.

This is crazy.

I think that Miestra and I could work together pretty easily, Tric'hard. Both of us are in a similar position, sharing a lot of macronational political values and a similar approach, and both of us eager for others to take charge but unwilling to let our goals die due to neglect.

The election has been fairly low key, Gluc, I agree - to Progressive detriment, actually, since we do better with higher turnout.

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on August 28, 2026, 03:21:13 PM

Quote from: King Txec on August 28, 2026, 01:27:20 PMWe further call upon our BHAID to investigate how the People of Talossa can alleviate, in at least some small part, the suffering now unfolding.

Thank you.

@Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir , what do you think?

The Government of the Kingdom of Talossa notes with sorrow the passing of Dolly Rebecca Parton, who died peacefully in Nashville, Tennessee, on the 25th of August, 2026, at the age of eighty. While the world will rightly remember her as one of the great voices of American music, it is for her works of generosity and compassion that we particularly remember her.

Dolly Parton understood, from the poverty of her own childhood, that dignity is not a luxury. Inspired by a father she loved who never learned to read, she built the Imagination Library -- now the largest early childhood book-gifting program in the world, with more than 300 million free books delivered to children across five countries (including my own). Through her Dollywood Foundation, she reduced her home county's high school dropout rate from thirty-five percent to six, funded children's hospitals, and created thousands of jobs in a region that badly needed them. When wildfires struck the Great Smoky Mountains in 2016, she raised over twelve million dollars for displaced families. When the COVID-19 pandemic threatened the world, her million-dollar donation to Vanderbilt University helped fund the early research behind the Moderna vaccine -- and then she rolled up her rhinestone sleeve on camera to get the shot, because she knew her people trusted her more than they trusted a press release.

The Kingdom of Talossa extends its deepest sympathies to the Parton family and to the countless communities she lifted. Her legacy is not measured in platinum records, but in children who learned to read, in families who kept their homes, and in lives that were saved because one woman from the hills of Tennessee decided that she could help. May she rest in peace.

Signed,
His Lordship Doctor Sir Alexandreu Davinescu, UrN, Ft.D BTL GST, Baron Davinescu del Vilatx Freiric del Vilatx Freiric
Txec R

Arya is joining TCAT -- no one's going to petition for him?!

Mençeis are back!

This applicant is eligible for a petition from a citizen.

(I'll also note they've been posting on our Discord more than here, which is okay.)

Quote from: Glüc on August 19, 2026, 07:28:13 AMPogacar or not Pogacar? He's 12 credits more than the next most expensive rider. Still requires some amount of bravery to skip him...

He is ridiculously expensive. But how can you not? You would just be giving up some days on purpose.

Thank you for your input, Dama Miestra.  While we disagree about the appropriate way to go about this, the Cort has agreed with what you have been arguing, and so you seem to have the right of it.

There have only been a few criminal prosecutions in our history.  Of those, I'm only aware of one where there was any investigative work that was done.  Years later, the manner in which that happened was used as partial justification to overturn the criminal conviction.  We're not going to make that same mistake in this investigation, and instead everything will be done above-board.  We want to do this right.

We know that this is a new way to approach things. This Government rejects cronyism and backroom dealing -- we are a nation of laws, not of politicians -- and this is part of that commitment.  We've asked a magistrate to supervise the gathering of evidence and affidavits under oath, since that's the legal way to do it and since it will help protect the rights of all involved.