Lysander the Great

GOOD AFTERNOON, ORBIS!!! Last night's show marked the conclusion of the 2024 Awards. We want to thank you all for joining us through this awards process, whether as a voter or as a representative, in particular for your efforts in nominating and voting on your fellow Orbis citizens. We would also like to congratulate not only last night's winners, but all those who were nominated and made it through to the final vote. Without further ado, here are your 2024 Academy Awards Winners! If you missed the show, you can listen to it here. If you'd like to view each of the rounds (including all the nominations, shortlisting and counting), you can find all information on that here. We would also like to know your take on this year's process, please complete this form to help us improve for next time. When we have this year’s awards completed, we will be sending them to the Administration team to get them added to everyone’s nation/alliance page. Thanks for a great year and congratulations to all the winners! We look forward to seeing you again next year - Your 2024 Academy Awards Committee

THE AWARDS ARE HERE! It is my distinct pleasure to announce that, after a great deal of blood, sweat, and tears, the 2024 Academy Awards are ready for voting! We appreciate your patience. As seems to be a yearly tradition, a great deal of things broke, but we have persevered to bring you the awards through a new method of voting. Rather than doing the usual three forum posts, the awards committee was asked to hold the vote for the awards in-game this year. As such, you will find every question for the awards at this link - https://politicsandwar.com/polls/view-all - and be sure to report any bugs you come across! The voting is currently set to close at the end of day Friday, March 28th. Whether this will be the in-game deadline or the irl deadline of 11:59pm is still to be determined. I would encourage everyone to join the awards server - found here https://discord.gg/NNvM8jdhnS - to keep up to date on the details. The awards show is set to be hosted by myself, Ashwin, and Morf at 9:00pm EST in the main P&W server - https://discord.gg/StN6RAUpz2 - on Saturday, March 29th. Feel free to reach out with questions, concerns, bugs, or any other comments!

A Cat, a Bat, and a Wolf walk into a bar. Despite the protests from the other two, the Bat insists on ordering nachos for the group. The Cat, in a dramatic flair, knocks his drink off the bar and exclaims, “By my sword, I’ll have another!” This prompts the Wolf to snarl at the bartender, “Don’t you dare give him another!” And at that moment, the Bat, fresh from the bathroom, collides with a wall and cries out, “Who puts a wall there?” As time passes and the friends have had their share of food and drink, they lean back, clutching their stomachs, knowing that trouble is brewing. TLDR - The Sword Coast, House Stark, and Arkham Asylum are diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome and decide to name their bloc after this traumatic event. Signatories The Sword Coast Fortune Teller of Prophecy: Aero Keeper of Prophecy: Left Behind House Stark King in the North: Darth Ataxia Hand of the King: Samani Three-Eyed Raven: Lysander Arkham Asylum General Director: Seb Deputy Director: CookieMonster

Glad to see the old tariff idea is getting attention again!

Where have I seen this before...

You were the best thing to happen to this game in years. Good luck, Village. I hope irl treats you well.

Happy Birthday to my friends at Dark Brotherhood!

And I thought I was the one who pushed propaganda! 10/10

Great to see our Roman brothers join in!

Congratulations @Jacob Knox! It’s been a pleasure knowing you, and I look forward to many fun times ahead. Good luck with what comes next!

Glad the forums have turned into Reddit posts of “AITA.” We’ve made it, guys.

As Captain-General Jeric and the Guardians of the Dawn flew through yet another solar system on the legion’s long journey, they noticed an odd planet that reminded them of a place called Earth they’d visited before. This planet had no known name in the ship’s navigation system, but was noticeably colder than what seemed normal for the planet’s location. Nevertheless, life was still abundant, and the Legion of Dawn broadly agreed it seemed like a suitable place to rest before continuing on their journey. The legion landed near a castle called Winterfell, and shortly after found themselves investigated by a local scouting party. Captain-General Jeric and the Guardian of the Bastion, Kan, agreed to visit with the rulers of the local kingdom. They found the castle of Winterfell impressive, despite being antiquated compared to the technology they were used to. The representatives of the Legion of Dawn, after asserting they were not there to cause any trouble, found themselves feasting merrily with the King of Winter, Ataxia Stark, and his advisors. Tales were sung of battles past, with undernotes of warning about “the coming Winter.” Jeric and Kan believed they could quite easily fix this problem, as their ship was capable of producing a tremendous amount of energy which could easily be released to warm the planet and prevent the encroaching cold, and offered their aid. “Are you certain you wish to join us in the fight against the Winter?” King Ataxia asked, with a furrow in his brow. “Of course,” said Captain-General Jeric. The two shook hands, formalizing the alliance. “After all,” Jeric said, “how hard could dealing with some snow really be?” “Snow?” Ataxia questioned. “Snow is the least of your worries now…” And in the far distance, the White Walkers felt the birth of the new alliance, and were worried. TL:DR The Legion of Dawn and House Stark sign an MnDoAP.

I appreciate the cameo, thank you

I wish you well, Alan. It’s been an honor fighting alongside you, and in general my time in the game has been better for knowing you. It’s been a rough road, at times, but ultimately - I think the game’s better for having had folks like you make the efforts you did. The memory of Black Skies, and of your accomplishments, will far outlast the negatives. For certain, I can say that working with you has provided an awareness of the true intentions of a lot of the game. It’s a shame this wasn’t a better environment for what you were looking to do; it should have been. Good luck, my friend, and Godspeed.

I expect to see you all achieve a game-wide NAP to end all war. Oh wait...

Player of the Year: Thalmor Most Influential Player: Velyni Vas Most Likely to Succeed in 2024: Themonia Best Alliance Leader: Darth Ataxia Worst Alliance Leader: Llojsa (Pelasgian King) Best In-Character Poster: Doctor (DocScripts) Best Villain: Sketchy Nicest Player: Hurhy Most Controversial Player: Graybird Most Missed Player: Redarmy Best Nation Page: Best Fighter: Dryad Best High Government Member: Samani Most Online/Likely to respond in 1 minute: Themonia Best War Criminal: Betta

Funniest Event - Any of Thalmor’s Drunk Shows Biggest Controversy - Graybird Best Declaration of War (please link) - Best Wall of Text (please link) - Thalmor’s Boutique Alliances Rant https://forum.politicsandwar.com/index.php?/topic/36545-boutique-alliances-and-the-problem-therein/ Best Leak (please link) - Aurora’s removal from Midgard https://discord.com/channels/446601982564892672/600041080406409284/1100193409899176056 Best Meme (please link) - Best Discord Server - Royal Orbis News Best Ad (please link) - Best Community Contributor - Roberts Best New Player 2023 - Themonia Sexiest Voice - Thalmor

Alliance of the Year: Carthago Most Improved Alliance: The Fighting Pacifists Best New Merged Alliance: Legion of Dawn Best Rookie Alliance: The High Table Best Alliance for New Players: The Fighting Pacifists Most Likely to Succeed in 2024: Carthago Most Likely to be Rolled in 2024: Singularity Most Honorable Alliance: The Knights Radiant Best Fighting Alliance: Knights Templar Worst Fighting Alliance: United Purple Nations Best Alliance Growth: Eclipse Best Foreign Affairs Team: Knights Templar Best Foreign Affairs Move: KT’s M with Aurora prior to Holiday Slumber Worst Foreign Affairs Move: WELP’s 6 month NAP with ODOO Alliance with Best Propaganda: Knights Templar Most Missed Alliance: The Wei Best Alliance Flag (please link): Best Holiday Flag (please link): Biggest Alliance Decline in 2023: United Purple Nations

What a based DoW I'm looking forward to being rescued by you @evilpiggyfoofoo @Velyni Vas

As has always been the case, best way to leak is still through alternative accounts. Doubt anyone is surprised, lol.

Vindicated once again.

Imagine expecting loan repayments during a war when even player-run businesses know better. Y’all are something else.

Peace talks were already leaked to me, and I already publicized the NAP term, before I reached out for comments and to discuss with some friends in ODOO. Bourbon-GATO I reached out specifically to try to get an answer on what had happened to clear up the vague situation that had a lot of speculation going on. Singularity appears to be mad they got leaked on and I posted it. Anything else?

News stations in Orbis are purveyors of information. Are they completely unbiased? Never - there’s always an argument to be made that bias exists. Even if there was a magical news server where no bias did exist, someone would take that and make an argument about there being bias anyways. When you have members handing out OPSEC like it’s candy, without any solicitation by myself or anyone else in Royal Orbis News, it seems to me like that’s not a RON problem, that’s a Singularity problem. Sure, after Singularity decided sending threats in DMs after RON leaked the merge was the proper way to go about things, my opinion of the alliance wasn’t exactly through the roof, but everything that’s been posted in the leaks and rumors channel has been relevant information, not “menial logs”. As for leaking being a “hostile act” - when someone knocks a hole in your boat, you don’t shoot the sea for sinking the ship. You shoot the guy who put the hole in the ship. When the someone in an alliance is freely providing OPSEC information, or, sorry, “menial logs”, it seems to me that the goal should be kicking that player. RON could stop taking those leaks today and another server or group would have them tomorrow. It’s not an easy road, as has been demonstrated, trying to play the game with a different strategy than simply hugging a larger alliance, but House Stark remains confident in her capabilities to play the way we feel we should.

House Stark has officially been a part of Politics & War for seven years. That’s seven years of ever-shifting politics, seven years of learning, seven years of growth, and ultimately, seven years of fun (even if it was always buggy fun!). Having hit lucky number seven, we look forward to what the future holds, and have great expectations and hopes for the next year of House Stark’s existence. It has been fun working (and fighting) with all of you, and we hope it will continue to be so. To seven years of House Stark, with many more on the horizon!