Menelmacar

[Chrimigules]

I was looking through this thread (http://shireroth.kuroshiro.net/forum/vi ... php?t=2120) and I was wondering who I might be able to ask questions about Menelmacar. The MicroWiki article on its history makes my eyes glaze over.

[Scott of Hyperborea]

*sees thread title and runs far, far away*
...and that reaction proves I know enough about it to answer questions, so go ahead and ask. Ric also knows a lot about it. And the local Babkhans probably have their own unique (read: wrong) perspective.

[Ari Rahikkala]

I was around at the time, but I've learned not to trust my memory very far on matters like this...

[andelarion]

Yeah, I was Menelmacari. Ah, the days

Questions? Shoot!

[Aurangzeb Khan]

Where can I find a second hand omen gravship?

[Chrimigules]

Well, I'm just wondering about some of the basics of the Menelmacari culture. I saw that Soloralism was mentioned, so I looked into that, but it even mentioned a special Menelmacari version of it...

EDIT: What the hell is this about psiballs...

[Kaiser Mors V]

Ahh.. Menelmacar... I had such hopes for it when it appeared.. and was so disappointed by it... and it was a draw on our citizen base and along with Delvenus a prime example for why we have the Tri-Cit law... and why I dislike duel citizenship...

[Maksym Hadjimehmetov]

It's thread like these which remind me how much of a newb I really am... *sulks*

[Jacobus Loki]

I've found Scott's lectures to be extremely useful, and rather than abstract them, I've copied them whole on a number of occasions.

But the article itself could use more first-hand accounts.

[Chrimigules]

Do you have any of those? Or does Scott?

[Scott of Hyperborea]

The infamous Menelmacar Lectures weren't actually lectures ABOUT Menelmacar. They were lectures posted IN Menelmacar. The only thing I wrote about Menelmacar was the history that's the current wiki artice, which as Chris noted is pompous and confusing.

But to answer the questions:

1. Menelmacar was originally founded by Sirithil, who was pretty new to micronationalism. She based it completely on Tolkien's elves. Then Bill and Harvey (aka the Soloralist Squad) joined became prominent citizens. They convinced Sirithil that Soloralism was an ancient and venerable micronational tradition, and Sirithil was impressed by its depth and its fantasyness and converted. The status of Soloralism in Menelmacar was pretty similar to the status of BOOMism in Shireroth - a few leading people were really into it, most of the citizenry accepted it without actively participating, and a few people didn't much like it but kept quiet out of respect.

There was never a Menelmacari sect of Soloralism in the sense that real Soloralists outside of Menelmacar believed one thing and real Soloralists in Menelmacar believed another. There was a Menelmacari sect in that Menelmacar was where Bill and Harvey did a lot of their development of the religion, and so the version practiced in Menelmacar was richer and more complex than the version practiced before. In particular, it had more gods. The in-game explanation for this was that Menelmacari Soloralism was a different sect. I don't know if the unique features of the Menelmacari version are still the "official" version endorsed by Bill, or whether he later changed his mind about some of them. He'd be the best person to ask.

2. You've read enough history to know who Archetype was, right? Well, before he discovered micronationalism, and for several years after, Archetype was one of the webmasters of a very large site on psionics (ESP stuff). This site still weirds me out, in that it was a large and successful community/school for people who believed they had psionic skills and wanted to improve them. The leaders of the site, including Archetype, claimed to have very strong telepathic powers, and they helped other people develop theirs. Normally I would assume it was a scam or a bunch of idiot teenagers, only 1) they were spending money rather than making it, and 2) all the signs pointed to Archetype being at least 25 or so, and 3) they knew what they were doing - they'd studied a lot of the scientific literature on the subject. Check the site out at http://www.psipog.net/

Psiballs were the basic skill of Archetype's form of psionic practice. It's a ball of psychic energy you create in your hands. You hold both your hands an inch or two apart lengthwise, cup them as if you're holding a sphere, and pump psychic energy through them to form a ball shape in the middle. Harvey and I (and maybe some other Menelmacari, I forget) tried this, and surprisingly it really works - sort of. You get a VERY strong feeling of there being a ball of energy there. I later studied it more thoroughly and found that this is a pretty common practice in lots of forms of mysticism, and is probably based on the large amount of nerve endings in the palms - if you concentrate on that area long enough in the manner described, you'll get a weird tingly feeling that's easy to mistake for something unusual. At least, that's what I tell myself to stay sane (disclaimer: on Archetype's insistence, I went to a few online classes at his psi school. They were interesting, but there was no knock-down proof).

While no one was completely ready to believe Archetype really had psionic powers, he was definitely one heck of a good guesser and manipulator, and his system contained a lot of interesting tricks like the psiballs. It kept several of us, including myself, at least ready to entertain the possibility for most of his time in MNs. He later had a series of debilitating back injuries and then a born-again Christian experience that, combined, got him out of MNs for good. I'm pretty sure he's not involved in psi anymore either.

[Chrimigules]

I didn't say it was pompous. I said it made my eyes glaze over. Like a donut.

EDIT: How many years of practice before you can do the Hadouken?

EDIT2: I managed to skim enough through the History article to see the link to his article. So it was the guys who better belonged on Dragonball Z who caused the schism in Menelmacar... interesting.

[Scott of Hyperborea]

Fun historical fact time!

The symbol of Psipog was, gods only know why, a banana. Archetype started a religion about it in Menelmacar (called Yellowism) and it became the symbol of him and his followers. One of the symbols of Soloralism was the character Magus from Chrono Trigger (it's a CoD thing). So the smily was added to Shireroth in solidarity with the Soloralists fighting against Archetype. That's why the code is ;archy and the mouseover text is "Opposed To Yellowism".

[Chrimigules]

I see. That's why you have the banana being slaughtered, but no banana not being slaughtered. Interesting...

Wait, when Menelmacar split, which was the Imperium of Menelmacar and which was Oire Arnanore Menelmacariva?

[Ari Rahikkala]

OAM was Sirimacar, Imperium was Archimacar.

[Scott of Hyperborea]

OAM, better known as Sirimacar, was led by Sirithil and originally intended to be Soloralist, but everyone quickly got bored and left except Mari Greenwood and Kathryn, who ended up using it to chat and play stupid word games, until someone finally put them out of their misery.

IoM, better known as Archimacar, was the Archetype version. It claimed not to be specifically Yellowist, but de facto it pretty much was. It was successful for several months. However, after Archetype left, the rest of the country wasn't really able to stay together.

Ric Lyon is famous/infamous as the only person to be a double citizen of both.

[Chrimigules]

Ric Lyon is famous/infamous as the only person to be a double citizen of both.

Sort of like Olorix in September '05, in both the Republic and Dinarchy.

Hmmm, so what is now New Brannum, where Menelmacar City was, was Archetype's. Interesting.

Where/what is Caras Menelmacar, and what (if you know) does Caras mean?
Were any specific architectural styles specified or major landmarks?
Are there any fictionalized accounts that take place in Menelmacar?

[andelarion]

Where/what is Caras Menelmacar, and what (if you know) does Caras mean?

Caras Menelmacar was in New Brannum, at the edge near the southern isle. Caras is Sindarin for "City", so it's just another name for Menelmacar City. And Menelmacar itself is a Quenya word for Swordsman in the sky, the Orion constellation...

Were any specific architectural styles specified or major landmarks?

Sirithil always said that Caras Menelmacar was a gigantic city filled with sky-scrapers and the like...

Are there any fictionalized accounts that take place in Menelmacar?

Hmmm... Can't remember...

[HIH Hesam Jahandar]

There was also the little known "Red Menelmacar". The theme graphics of the forums for Menelmacar were green. Ryan "Warvoid" had his own hand in things, and at one point was building an alternate menelmacar designed exactly the same only with a red theme. It never took off, which was a shame because if he had, menelmacar would have been more bizarre and confusing than the RC church during the Avignon papacy.


The best way (I find) to describe menelmacar is this:

A collection of prominent micronationalists who had their own "brand" (ie Psi, Soloralism, Elven Culture). These micronationals used their "brand" to claim menelmacar for themselves. For their troubles, the country self-destructed.

[benkern]

Hesam: your talk of Red Menelmacar reminds me of an image Ryan showed me once of a black (as in hair/clothes colour, not skin colour) version of Midori... his goth roots manifest themselves in strange, strange ways.