MARNIE Archives December 2015

This page holds archived editions of the MARNIE newspaper which is published every Monday. The Archive contains at least four-week-old issues, and links are clickable despite what the Editor's Notes of the paper editions say. In order to keep the reading content manageable, each month will have its own page.

Midgard's Alpha Realm News
International Edition
December 7th, 2015

Editor's Note:
Pictures can be viewed at https://dev-urandom.eu/_media/books:newspaper_pictures:???.png when exchanging '???' with the photo number given in the articles. Other links lead to this server's wiki.

In Worldwide News:
Aestland's Return, page 21

In Regional News:
Quiet Brazilians, page 40

In Local News: The Yagira Affair, page 44

Worldwide News

Spawn River Collaboration
(ns) During the last week of November, Resident Nick4629 started to build a boardwalk along the eastern riverbank of the river west of New Spawn. He started in the south and worked his way north, using an intricate design that also prevents swimmers to climb up from the water.
From the north, after having established the new boathouse named the Innsmouth Shack on November 30th, Resident Dora worked southward from there, mostly successfully trying to emulate his countryman's design.
On the first of December, Duke June of the United Duchy of the Two Sorras requested, “Someone please rebuild the western spawn bridge. It's too low.” For the time being, he placed a sign on each side warning about inevitable head bumps.
Following the request, the next day Administrator Jinxauthor_Mel of Midgard Municipality elevated and stabilized the bridge, naming it Former Headbump Bridge in honor of both the original river crossing and Duke June's appeal to improvement. The boardwalk, which had not yet reached the bridge area, was extended, keeping with the designer's intricate details, and the bridge itself was constructed by blending the styles of the spawn grid and boardwalk together.
After the bridge was declared finished, Master Paladin Massolit of the Tsardom of Solntze-Grad widened the riverbed, enabling boats to maneuver the bend around the bridge support more easily.

Back on the Island
(up) On December 1st, Stadtholder Harcourtien of Den Faag notified the press that he had bought back the southern island from Duke Tomoko Kuroki of the Duchy of Sidonia.
He stated he plans to continue to build “something” in the western flower fields of the Republic of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, but might also create a second version of Eyjan Hvíta on the southern island. He has already removed the unfinished castle frame, and placed squares.

Nerd Killing
(ns) Shortly after rejoining the Federation of Aestland, some of its citizens killed Resident TheNerd96 around New Spawn and looted his death chest. When charged, Resident Deivis stated that Nerd had started by shooting arrows at them, confirmed by his countrymen and known to happen rather regularly. Even God AlphaBernd, who observed the ensuing discussions, noted that, “Well, we all killed Nerd at some point …” He convinced them to just return the looted items.

The Tsardom of Solntze-Grad
(sg) Having gathered five more citizens, Master Paladin Massolit of Solntze-Grad petitioned to found a nation by combining his territory with the neighboring previous Kriegsteinian duchy named 'Sidonia'. As that area remained unclaimed so far, permission for establishment of the new tsardom was given. The Master Paladin has not yet registered his new nation officially.

Suntopia's Newbie Package and Guide
(st) On November 29th, Baron CorruptedPants of the Barony of Suntopia embarked on a project aimed at the influx of new residents, especially completely inexperienced ones without a prior acquaintance in our realm.
Having thought up the idea of presenting each with one mule bearing a survivalkt to get them on the way and help them during the first days, he concluded that a guidebook was in order as well. While it proofed difficult to keep the in-game books up to date, the Baron continually improves the content which can also be found on the page https://dev-urandom.eu/talk:settlements:suntopia in the Autism Almanac.
Several players have already accepted the help and profited from the offer.

Multiple Identity Disorder Revealed
(ar) Regarding the near wither attack on New Spawn last week (see previous issue), Moderator GlitchyBat expressed some suspicions and asked co-Moderator July to do a background check on the culprit Zirael. It was thus discovered that Zirael, the reportedly 'robbed' Resident Mimokrokodil and the battle-versed Resident AdamJensen are all one and the same person. To date, neither personality has commented on the discovery.

Aestland's Return
(ae) Last Tuesday had the founder of Aestland return to his island. He came back to Alpha Realm after half a year of absence and gave the name 'Justasboi' for himself. He remembered his home but not how to get there, and accepted the offer of guidance for himself and a friend he'd brought along.
After a trek through the nether and some harrowing boating accidents on high seas due to inexperience, the three travelers made their way to the linked island. Only upon seeing it did the guide recognize it as Aestland, as the one trying to get there had not given a name, and remembered that there should be a portal even on the island itself.
The returnee agreed and found it at once, well-hidden as it is, as well as his former residence. Upon scrutinizing the chests in his home, the returnee remembered his real name and explained that he had been suffering from partial amnesia due to a network complication. Now that he was home though, he could fully return to his former self: Baltman, the founder of Aestland.
Upon the confirmation of his identity, Resident Baltman was informed about the recent invasion and annexation by the Holy Danikan Commonwealth. His immediate reaction was, “Nonsense, I'm the king of Aestland, I'll restore it.” Self-declared King Baltman was advised to seek independence once more by bringing the matter up to the Commonwealth's Reichsrat. When warned about possible opposition from King Shakomatic, who has been known to forbid once joined territories from leaving, King Baltman stated confidently, “Don't worry, I'll fuck his shit.”
When asked about his reason for returning, he replied, “I wanted to make Aestland great again.” Within a short time, he invited more new residents to his island and changed the 'duchy' back to the Federation of Aestland on the page https://dev-urandom.eu/nations:federation_of_aestland in the Autism Almanac.
When told of the re-establishment of Aestland, both Kaiser P_P_A of the Holy Danikan Commonwealth and King Shakomatic of the Apostolic Kingdom of Breshik “guaranteed” that the secession would be approved if properly petitioned for.
A minute later, King Baltman declared, “Kind sirs, I humbly request the independence of our federation so we could start cleansing the Christians with fire.”
King Shakomatic's immediate response was, “Okay, I am voting against,” and that Breshik would only “support independence if Aestland promises religious tolerance.” Since King Baltman took an outspoken stance against Christians, Kaiser P_P_A suggested to grant independence, give them some time, “and then we crusade them.”
To date, the bill brought up in the Reichsrat is still pending.

Large Scale Cooperation
(ns/pv) During the past week, Trader Flakese of Samerkand started building a racetrack “in order to make fat stacks off of bet hedging” east of New Spawn. It is intended to be of use to many residents and accordingly, he invited other residents to donate and help out. With the help of Baron CorruptedPants of the Barony of Suntopia and Residents CrazyCircus, Dora, Litvin and Yeti30, the Pony Valley Racetrack was finished on December 6th.

Triple Alliance
(ex) The recently flattened area that was once supposed to become Aresea's proud capital Arianapolis has been renamed to Tollan and received another chance at capital status. This time, the land it is to reign is called Ēxcān Tlahtōlōyān, a governorship combining three city-states under the united leadership of Tlatoanis Tomoko, Refyr and Opti.
In order to ease travel to the distant desert, Tlatoani Tomoko commissioned Midgard Municipality to extend a NEAR Transports line from the New Spawn Netherhub to Tollan. The line is operational as of this week's Monday, and assistants for mining and constructing could be attracted more easily.

Literal Highway
(ar) On November 29th, Resident Dmigis broached the subject of creating an “elevated road” from Samarkand to his hometown Chernolesovsk. Splitting from the Kurwa Highway right beyond Samarkand, the road would cross many territories. As such, Resident Dmigis was advised against the entirely elevated design, even while he received encouragement to pave the road itself. While parts of it are slightly heightened depending on the terrain, he was able to stick to the ground for most of it, receiving assistance and approval from Creator Tangaloa of Elkkuton.

Regional News

Quiet Brazilians
(bc/nb) Most of the Brazilian settlers have left the realm during the past week. While occasionally visitors arrive, few seem interested in staying longer, leaving only a handful regulars who build mostly on their own in otherwise abandoned settlements.
Brazilian Resident Mad_Hodman, who is also back, therefore decided to remain in Zweiyurten for now.

Local News

Efforts Elsewhere
(mm) Last week, Midgard Administration decided to accept two requests regarding employment outside of our settlement. In Nova Bydlograd, interior designers were given free rein in furnishing and decorating various halls and chambers of the monastery attached to the Basilica of St. Joseph. For a requested nether project, Tlatoani Tomoko of Ēxcān Tlahtōlōyān even offered payment which was gratefully accepted by Midgard's leadership.

The Yagira Affair
(mm) Late on December 6th, 2015, Resident Yagira visited Midgard Municipality in order to secretly test a plugin bug exploit he discovered, on chests he had already raided once before. During his time on the island, two villagers vanished from the Administration Residence. When this was included in charges of hacking and theft, and he was banned for one day because he would not leave the island, he angrily used a ban evasion and returned in the disguise of NoIDeaWa.
This time, he was caught in flagrante killing four more live-in merchants, and killed by Intern Nitu, who has before shown great dedication in defending the populace from hostiles. When the charges were brought to God AlphaBernd, a one week prison sentence was issued for the witnessed quadruple murder. Resident Yagira accepted the punishment, and animosity could be laid to rest.
As a result of his bravery, Intern Nitu has been granted the position of Constable with full control over the security guards. His duties will include protecting and defending the populace and visitors, from native hostiles and aggressive intruders, installing security equipment in sensitive areas and consulting with Architect Mel on building safeguards.

Midgard's Alpha Realm News
International Edition
December 14th, 2015

Editor's Note:
Pictures can be viewed at https://dev-urandom.eu/_media/books:newspaper_pictures:???.png when exchanging '???' with the photo number given in the articles. Other links lead to this server's wiki.

In Worldwide News:
Mall Voting, page 28

In Regional News:
Station Stolen, page 41

In Local News:
Railway to the Far South, page 48

Worldwide News

Retraction
(sr) MARNIE's editor Jam wishes to apologize to Residents AdamJensen and Mimokrokodil for incorrect information printed in last issue's article 'Multiple Identity Disorder Revealed'. While it remains unclear exactly what the investigation suggested by Moderator GlitchyBat revealed to Moderator June, the latter's conclusion that that three residents were only one person was disproved last week.
On December 10th, while discussing alternative personalities, Resident AdamJensen noted that, “Mimokrokodil is not mine.”
The next evening, both residents visited their home in Southrim at the same time, interacting with each other as well as further residents at the same time - thus proving that at least Residents AdamJensen and Mimokrokodil are two individual people. Neither of them commented on the banned Griefer Zirael.

Renamed Nation (ex) Last week, the new formed alliance Ēxcān Tlahtōlōyān was renamed to Ēxcān Bastet and decreed Universalism as its national religion. An explanation of the belief system can be found on the page https://dev-urandom.eu/sects:universal_holy_feel_church in the Autism Almanac, collected and written out by Tlatoani Tomoko.

Kaiser Elected
(cw) Last Monday, King Shakomatic of the Apostolic Kingdom of Breshik was once more reinstated as the Kaiser of the Holy Danikan Commonwealth. His third term in office is the first time he was elected by all voting citizens.

Pigeon Incursion
(ss) With the area less busy than it used to be, huge pigeons are starting to conquer Second Spawn. One particularly large specimen has made a home on the mall's roof and uses the entrance area to relieve itself and drop eggs, as was reported by ornithologist Moderator Koduck. Passersby and mall customers are advised to enter and exit the building with care, especially when other residents are on the roof agitating the big bird.

Autism Criteria
(ar) God AlphaBernd spent last Tuesday on updating both our Realm's autism criteria and its outer presentation on the page https://autism.dev-urandom.eu/. An added criteria is now the 'hours played' list, finally providing a statistic acknowledging all the hard work that goes into afk-farming. Since it does not involve the (personal) changing of any blocks, those efforts could heretofore not be properly honored.
According to God AlphaBernd's explanation, the hours displayed are added for the “entire time since the map started” (in contrast to the block changes that only sum up “the last ninety days”, which is an extension of the previous two-month period) and count work in Alpha Realm's Nether and End regions as well. Each listed player is linked to a personal page displaying even more detailed information.

Pending Peace
(cw) On December 13th, the Commonwealth's Reichsrat officially enacted the Bill C.R.R. 27 entitled 'Ratification of a Peace Treaty to end the war with the Ender' with all five votes in favor of the decision. However, the treaty itself has not yet been signed by Commonwealth representatives.
In a statement, High Commissioner Austrobernd of the Mandatory of New Badfacia explained that President Hinoarashi of the Republic of Ender “proposed a treaty a while ago since [King Shakomatic of the Apostolic Kingdom of Breshik] negotiated” with him. The circumstances and content of the negotiations were not disclosed, but the draft of the peace treaty document has been publicly viewable on the page https://dev-urandom.eu/treaties:treaty_of_drenesk since November 28th, and was signed by President Hinoarashi that same day. H.C. Austrobernd comments on the lack of response by the Commonwealth that, “I mean we are okay with a treaty, but not in that current form,” even though 'that current form' was designed by King Shakomatic himself, and the bill enacted referred to this specific treaty as well. He did not detail exactly what does not sit well with all Commonwealthers.

Hollow Bastion at the Northern Edge
(ur) Recently, a huge cobblestone pillar was discovered at the northern edge of Alpha Realm, piquing the interest of the press and the neighboring town. While Residents Anotsu and RevolverKun from the nearby Squid Village had ventured to the structure they can see from home, they had been unable to find hints as to its creator.
After receiving some quick investigation training, Resident RevolverKun set out once more and reported that the high outer walls were “created with lava and water” by Resident Acid_Trance since November 28th.
Carefully moving inside, the explorer was able to shoot some rather breathtaking pictures, which are collected in photo 015. Only a little later, Resident Acid_Trance himself awoke but was unable to be contacted, so he could not be asked whether his magnificent structure was named. Even so, considering its size and particularities, the stronghold should be included in the list of Alpha Realm's landmarks.

Badface Builds Guardian Farm
(bf) Slightly off the northern shores of the United Duchy of the Two Sorras, High Commissioner Austrobernd of the Mandatory of New Badfacia is currently working on creating a new guardian farm around a previous ocean monument. He did not yet comment to the press on whether or not this is a farm exclusive to the Mandatory of Badfacia, or if he plans to donate a central, public guardian farm to Alpha Realm residents.

Mall Voting
(ns) On Thursday, Tlatoani Tomoko of Ēxcān Bastet announced plans to build a new mall closer to New Spawn, and was immediately strongly discouraged by various residents. Against opinions that it would be better to “just expand the old mall” which “is still heavily in use”, Tlatoani Tomoko countered that the “old mall is too laggy” and he “was thinking of demolishing it actually […] but if you guys want that ugly thing, I'll leave it.” He expressed dissatisfaction with his then-hurried design of the mall and stated that a new one would be “more spacey and modern and hip.”
When the discussion continued the next day with even more discouragement from other residents, Tlatoani Tomoko decided to put up a voting board until Tuesday evening. To date, six valid votes for it and eight valid votes against it have been gathered. Invalid signs (without names) may be used for valid votes until Tuesday night, and the vote ends on Wednesday, December 16th.
However, Tlatoani Tomoko cautioned that, “Literally, the vote is only a 'suggestion'; if I want I could still go ahead and build it, but I'm waiting to see what people want. There's no 'democracy' here. But I'll respect the wishes of Alpha Realm and build something else instead. It's me voluntarily listening to you guys.”
For unknown reasons, Resident Zylix seems intent to sabotage the pro-voting, as shown in photo 016.

Co-Habitation in Southrim
(sr) In the 'Southrim Fortifications' area MARNIE reported about in the November 23rd issue, Resident Pwnisrufezeichen finally discovered the previous inhabitant's storage facilities on December 11th. Believing to have intruders on hand, he called out to Moderator Niller1703, who discovered that the chests in question belonged to Resident AdamJensen. Said resident was also in Alpha Realm at the time and called to the scene.
Overhearing the inquisition, Administrator Jinxauthor_Mel of Midgard Municipality informed Moderator Niller1703 that, “Adam and Mimo were there first, but they were rather hidden in their mountain base.” Administrator Jinxauthor_Mel had visited the area in early October during the compilation of the Netherrail Network and found that even then, their dwellings were older than two months, and the Austrian settlers had not yet arrived. He also informed that neither Resident Mimokrokodil, who was in Alpha Realm several times since the Austrians started on their fortifications, nor either of the latter reacted to any communication attempts from the press, and therefore could be neither informed nor asked about their cohabitants.
Moderator Niller1703 confirmed that the warehouse was as old as February 2015, and Resident AdamJensen noted that while the warehouse was his, “now Mimokrokodil lives here.” Resident Pwnisrufezeichen stated, “I respect that you were here first but I don't wanna remove my wall. We didn't know that there were any others, so we started surrounding it with walls. Later we noticed this house in the north and after watching it for a while, we decided that nobody is there anymore.” He decided to later talk to Resident Mimokrokodil.

Regional News

Station Stolen
(ln) During recent weeks, Chief Tsaryu of the Commons of Valensiya has been active in the neighborhood again. Visiting Lauranya on December 7th shortly after midnight, to his shocked bemusement he found the entire train station building vanished. An immediate investigation by Valensiyan officials exposed that it had been cleanly demolished by Resident Demmy, who had visited Alpha Realm for all of forty minutes and left only one and a half hour before the damage was discovered.
Moderator Koduck, who was called to the scene, restored the building and issued a lifelong prison sentence for the culprit. Further investigation later on revealed that livestock had also been set free but not slain, and Demolisher Demmy had also broken into the bank's vault but was unable to crack the code protecting the safes.
To Chief Tsaryu's utter disbelief, the demolisher had taken twenty-eight minutes for a task that should have taken no more than seven minutes. After Chief Tsaryu expressed admiration and amusement rather than anger, Moderator Koduck shortened Demolisher Demmy's sentence to one week in prison for 'taking down an entire station'.

Moving East
(zy) Resident Mad_Hodman, who had briefly settled in Zweiyurten, last Friday announced his plans to move to the eastern village which had previously caught the interest of the Blahsper citizens and been abandoned several times already. He expressed ideas about building along the river banks rather than in the village itself, but made it a priority to discover a skeleton spawner around that area.

Local News

Railway to the Far South
(mm) With material donations of Stadtholder Harcourtien of Den Faag, Tlatoani Tomoko of Ēxcān Bastet and Resident Llyrana, as well as labor assistance of the latter, Midgard Administration was able to finally realize the long-planned ambition of providing a netherrail to the far south. While the safety tube is not yet finished, nor stations on the way connected, travel to Resident Harcourtien's Island are possible as of last week, and Midgardian tourists are ecstatically planning their vacations.

Newer issues are not yet archived but can still be bought at the New Spawn Book Store.