View from Benacia/Issue 54: Arminy Annexation Ceremony Set For Wednesday

This imported article was originally posted at http://viewfrombenacia.blogspot.com/2005/01/issue-54-arminy-annexation-ceremony.html at 01/25/05.

Following the passing of the Treaty of Arminsbur3 by the Landsraad, the Arminian Ricch looks set to join Shireroth as its seventh Duchy. To mark the event, the Kaiser announced that a ceremony will be held on Wednesday, January 26th.

The Kaiser specifically invited a number of individuals to the ceremony, including the Emperor of Arminy (soon to be the new Duke), Shireroth's Minister of the Exterior, and the heads of the Nor-Krantisk and Cedrist faiths, all of whom will figure prominently in the official proceedings. His Majesty has released a briefing to the View on the planned sequence of events.

The ceremony is expected to open with the signing of the Treaty by both the Kaiser and Emperor Johanns. This will be followed by speeches welcoming the Arminians into Shireroth; Minister of the Exterior Sir Iain de Vembria is slated to be the first speaker, but anyone else with "official-type" speeches are welcome to speak their piece afterward.

After the speeches are concluded, the respective heads of the Nor-Krantisk and Cedrist faiths are to be invited to offer prayers for the future and good fortune of the union. The High Priest in Arminy is apparently our own David Beckford; it is not yet known who will be appearing on behalf of Cedrism, although His Majesty has expressed his hope that the prophet Brrapa Lu Eraro will be able to make the ceremony.

After the services are concluded, the ceremony is expected to close with the inhabitants of the new Duchy swearing allegiance to the Kaiser, after which the Kaiser will complete the formalities under Shirerithian law and Decree the Duchy of Arminy into existence and appoint Johanns as the Duke. The partying will then commence!

The Decree is expected also to provide for the creation of an Arminian forum in Shireroth's territory, and for recognition of prominent Arminian-Shirerithian citizen Ric Lyon, aka Andelarion.

A New Citizen! Commence the Elf-Snuggles!

Ahem... just kidding about the elf-snuggles.

But not about the new citizen! Imperial Ras Charles Beard, also a citizen of Attera, applied to join Shireroth over the weekend, and was accepted by MiniImNat. Against all common sense, he failed to immigrate to Benacia, but hey... Hyperborea is also good, if you like all that icy-death kind of stuff.

Let's everyone give him a warm welcome and refrain from snide remarks about Attera in his presence!

FNORD Nominations Closed

The nomination threads for the the People's FNORD awards have been closed and moved to a private forum for consideration by the judges... incidentally making all those links we painstakingly put into last issue utterly useless. (Oh, yes, we're a tad cranky about that.) Another annoying facet of the current FNORD activities is the removal of a number of categories from the awards due to too few nominations (or too few admissible nominations), although this is admittedly not a fault on the part of the organizers of the awards.

Ras Noseworthy put it rather succinctly: "A lot of good categories, including the Peace Prize, got scrapped since apparently the majority of you are too stupid to follow directions. The inherent lack of certain people to read and abide by simple directions is not only pitiful, it's pathetic."

Still, attention must now turn to the remaining categories. Two of the national categories in which Shireroth was nominated did not make it to the judging, but is still a candidate for Most Efficient Government and Most Culturally Developed Micronation. Moreover, Shireroth is also in several categories that last issue failed to mention, either from oversight on the part of our staff or nominations since last issue. These are Best Established Micronation and the Saeed al-Sayyaf Award for Best Propaganda (for the March to the Landsraad Hall). This leaves Most Unusual Micronation as the only national category Shireroth failed to make it into, something that will likely shock and outrage most Shirerithians.

The three personal categories remaining are Least Arrogant Micronationalist, Best Avatar, and Most Committed Micronationalist, all three of which have at least one Shirerithian candidate (and indeed, Least Arrogant Micronationalist has two). There are ten community categories, of which three have a Shirerithian citizen or institution in the running: the Odlum Award for Overall Achievement, the Einstein Award for the Best New Idea, and Best Newsblog. As before, we are pleased to note that the View is included as a candidate in this last category.

Happy Birthday, Lothlaria!

Tomorrow is the third anniversary of Lothlaria's beginnings as the independent nation of Akerbjorn, founded by Philip Locke. Congratulations!