Another Day, Another MO

Just when you thought you'd have a breather to recover from the wonderful mistake of the Grand Commonwealth, there's another "Grand Half Merger But Don't Worry We're Only Interested In Your Foreign And Military Affairs" Organisation on the prowl. It's called the Confederation of Graius- oh wait, it's called Gralus! Wow, that makes a bit more sense. I was starting to hope Gray was active on the Micran scene again - and corrupting the hearts and minds of three of the up-and-coming micronational powers in order to make them do his evil will would certainly be the way he'd burst back on the scene.

So, as I said, up-and-coming micronational powers. In my books (yes, books - my old favourite "The Joy of Cooking Babkhans" has been knocked off the best-sellers list by my new release "Giess - It's a Lie and You Know It"), this equates to a bunch of young whippersnappers running around screaming, dressed in Imperial clothes far too big for them. So yes, micronationalists doing their thing. Let's take a little look at the nations involved. There's Tokidoki (plus their dependancy, Spartistan), Novatainia and Passas. I know, I may as well have been reading the ingredients on a pack of 1-minute microwaveable noodles, but bear with me. (or face the consequences!)

Novatainia don't seem all bad, despite the fact that they have more boards than the old Shirerothian ezBoards - remember, without sub-boards. *Shudders as best a tree can* Yes, they seem to have done quite well for themselves in terms of activity and foreign affairs - Embassies include those for Oscland, NAM and Lovely. Guess which ones no longer exist! Their representatives on the MCS seem to be part of the furniture these days (I remember when I was part of the furniture - well, not literally), but they lose points for not having any Malarbor-sounding provinces or regions.

"tokidoki is the Japanese inspired lifestyle brand created in 2005 by Italian artist Simone Legno and his business partners Pooneh Mohajer and Ivan Arnold. tokidoki produces apparel and other products using art and iconic characters designed by Simone Legno." While I couldn't find anything on the Tokidoki forums about Simone Legno, I did find some great stuff on Magics of all kinds. These guys seem to be rather crazed about their Magic - they hold RecWar-style expeditions to, well, who cares. Some other magic places I guess. Importantly they claim that Daemon Trees are Immune to Fire - I can live with that. But they think we're also corrupted ents - what a joke! Come on now, that's just going over the top. So, though Tokidoki have promise, I'd say they're going a bit too far with some of their cultural stuff.

Passas - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! I know I'm fire proof but that much red would set water aflame. Seriously, tone down those forum colours before we all go blind. Their level of inactivity is evidently directly proportional to the ability of their forum to cause epileptic seizures, and indeed they're in fact a "client state" of Gralus - probably a protectorate. Ah, it reminds me of good old Shireroth - the last topic to have posts in it is called "The End?" and mainly consists of people talking about the nation's death. Ah, nostalgia. So yeah - Passas isn't the greatest addition to the CoG Team, but, well, you can't blame it.

The conclusion: while some of the individual nation states may be a bit of a laugh, I don't really see Gralus becoming the new GC. Maybe the new NAM. If they're lucky they'll avoid being the new CIS. However, there is a solution - allowing me to cover all member nations with my own demonic sap could yeild some productive results, like Treenation... Treeland... Treesia?

Now, some food for thought - Tokidoki's Beastiary defines a Leprechaun as someone with a good head for a drink and an Irish accent. Last time I checked, Ardashir's hobbies include drinking Guinness and meeting up with micronationalists in Ireland. I'll let you draw your own conclusions... for once.