Eurth
is a region for the online game NationStates (NS) and a long-running community for role-playing fictional countries. The community was founded in January 2004, and quickly rose to prominence. Within the game, it is labelled as an "enormous"-sized region. The community is a colourful mosaic of diverse nations, who enjoy a realistic Play-by-Post Games role-play based on modern technology. Good writing is the central tenet that led to the creation of a solid history and lore.
Eurth features an entirely Constructed World and Alternate History. It largely detached itself from IRL entities, either by renaming them or replacing them altogether. For example: Islam is replaced by the fictional religion Salam, and Scandinavian is renamed Buranian. For the sake of reader understanding, the tropes and country descriptions have their IRL culture name attached to them. Also unlike most other communities in NS, Eurth makes extensive use of off-site forums and IIWiki, a website dedicated to geofiction.
History
Genesis (early 2004)
Early days. The first light appeared on 9 January 2004. The player 'The Europa Empire' decided to (re)found the region 'Europa' in his own image. And he saw that it was good. Every year the community celebrate this period with some nice regional festivities. Many other first creations happened in this period.
Back then, the NS RMB didn't hold more than 10 posts, and everything beyond that was erased. Since the community was very active and had a lot to say to each other, everyone was happy when 4 months later the regional forum was created. The off-site forum quickly became the dedicated place to continue community conversations and share role-play stories. It evolved throughout the years, but all the history is still preserved. Some other players preferred to use the NS forums. But those older players were likely very disappointed when the Jolt forums (2006-2010) were erased after the Nationstates 2 deal imploded. Europa dodged that disaster.
Golden Age (mid 2004 to 2008)
Europa experienced its first golden age between 2004-2008. A regional government was formed, organised around the Citizen Plaza. It became a place for everyone to spill their guts regarding the government policies, for open discussions and comments. Seasonal elections were held for the Senator. There were also 3 ministries: internal affairs, foreign affairs, and defence.
This period of high activity led to a natural influx of new members, pushing the community towards 300 players. These were good times. Much of this OOC and IC history is preserved in the archived blog The Europan Times.
International relations were established across the Nationverse. Built along the Hermes Avenue are the embassies of our strong allies, and the consulates of our honourable friends. This proved the best place to talk to foreigners, just as long as you don't feed them. Our old friend Thel D'Ran of Lemuria, who later became delegate of The North Pacific, even included us in his regional rankings.
Middle Ages (2009 to 2014)
Every Golden Age like that is usually followed by a less spectacular [i]silver[/i] age. In Europa, this period is described by some as the "Great Lull". While the activity did not completely come to a standstill, it did slow down when compared to the previous period. The influx of new players was less than before. This period also corresponded with the steep rise of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and a game that must not be named. Perhaps that's where everyone decided to spend their time? And don't forget about real-life, the harsh mistress that stole away many a writer from our midsts.
Renaissance (2015 to April 2019)
A new spark triggered the light for our Renaissance period. An actual 'Project Renaissance' led the community down a five-year path of rejuvenation. This saw both the arrival of new creative spirits and the return of many classic colleagues. Europa cleaned up its act, replaced IRC with Discord (3 May 2017), merged with UBPSSIF (30 May 2017), upgraded our forums (23 September 2017), established a Wiki (January 2018), and stepped up its role-play game. These years showed to be an excellent time for the growing community.
Community activities were launched, such as story polls, Nation of the Month (NOTM), and organising games (ex. Eurth Craft). Most visitors were pleasantly surprised this community has been going for so long. The second most heard comment is about the stories and maps they make for their RP. Europa has quite a number of writers, designers, and even developers among us who regularly blow us away with the quality of their creations.
After this internal freshening-up, the community restarted its external outreach by making themselves more visible to the wider NS audience. A public embassy was opened for NS GP. Helpful answers on Reddit NS attracted some lovely people. There was a regional booth during the Nationstates World Fair 6, and even participated in an interregional football tournament, where the 'Valiant Vertibirds' went down fighting. When there's a NS game going on (e.g. zombies or nukes), they also join in on the fun, and it can become quite competitive.
Reformation (April 2019 to present)
In 2019, a belated April Fools' Day joke by one person nudged the community towards an unscheduled move from Europa to a new region called Eurth. Someone drank too much of the Kool-Aid and decided it'd be a fun idea to go and change the locks on all the doors. What a way to go… Naturally, because it was still April and cold outside, the community had to look elsewhere for shelter. Everyone helped out carrying boxes to our the place at Eurth.
Together with the new living space, the community also introduced the concept of an RP Academy, together with volunteer mentors to guide newcomers. This serves two roles: guiding new players around the vast lore and particular rules, while also creating a threshold for low-effort ghosts. The community began holding regular events, story polls and welcomed many visitors. Recruitment telegram were restarted by Tagmatium, which had a positive effect.
Current present and active nations: (Puppets are shown beneath their main accounts)
- Adaptus: Ruled by GeneralRipper.
- Ahrana: In a textbook example of FullCircleRevolution, the Ahranaian monarchy was ousted by a communist revolution, only to restore the monarchy a few years later.
- Anatea: Somehow also set in AceCombat.
- Baltica: Your stereotypical Ruritania.
- Esonice: Perfect place to go Japandering.
- Fubukino: Stratocracy. Might be inspired by FullmetalAlchemist.
- Fulgistan: Also known as the CommieLand of Countrystan.
- Gallambria: The Shiny New Australia.
- Haruspex: Very much aiming to be the Big Bad, while actually becoming the Ex-Big Bad. Populated by the Helghast from Killzone.
- Iverica: As close as you can get to The Federation.
- Orioni: Has-been Vestigial Empire.
- Rhodellia: Another incarnation of Ruritania.
- Sanctum Imperium Catholicum: Islandyay ationnay ithway ayay opePay.
- Seylos: Regular stand-in for The Good Kingdom.
- Sunset Sea Islands: Former Tropical Island Adventure, now ruled by The Generalissimo.
- Tagmatium: Stand-in for ByzantineEmpire. Also known as Arcadia.
- Xio: Developing Empire.
Eurth's role-playing contains examples of the following tropes:
- A World Half Full: Some nations are glowing beacons of tolerance, justice, and purity. However, others are brutal Totalitarian States and absolute monarchies that formerly practised chattel slavery.
- Bulungi: There used to exist an actual nation called Bulungi, but that role is now played by Afropa.
- Commie Land: Various countries met the criteria at various points in Eurthican history.
- Evil Puppeteer: Pretty much sums up Great Anglia. Or, if you're Tagmatium, the perfidious EOS.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: A lot of nations within the region tend to have a lack of originality. For example: Great Anglia is England, Lysia is France, Ide Jima is China, etc.
- Fantasy Counterpart Religion: In contrast with other Worldbuilding regions, Eurth is known for re-using few real-world religions.
- Fictional United Nations: This role is filled by the dysfunctional Assembled Nations.
- Full-Circle Revolution: The Ahranaian monarchy was ousted by a communist revolution, only to restore the monarchy a few years later.
- Fun with Acronyms:
- Civil Administration of Oriental States.
- Meteorolan Islands Liberation Front.
- Peace Legion of the Assembled Nations.
- Hand Wave: Various questions have been waived in terms of Worldbuilding. Most notoriously, the plausibility of human migration patterns, if they have even been considered, are frequently tossed aside.
- Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Nukes still exist, but were only used in the Thalassan War.
- Qurac: There's no place like Norrium and its Tin-Pot Dictator.
- Ruritania: It doesn't get more stereotypical than Baltica.
- The Bermuda Triangle: The Burkini Triangle.
- Überwald: The whole of Dolchland is quite inspired by this.
