I propose the foundation of a Novasolum Geosciences Union, to be sponsored jointly by each of the Novasolum nations with these three aims:

1. To study the geography, climate and other related physical sciences in the Novasolum continent and its world.

This role would involve the NGU in ongoing research, "exploration" and "discovery", and publication of reference material to fully develop the Novasolum continent as a fantasy environment. The NGU would be the final authority for determining, say, the height of a mountain or the length of a river. The NGU would publish maps and also develop new and revised maps when nations decide to build new roads or towns, or give a new name to a physical feature.

2. To advise micronational governments and interested parties on any matter where the physical characteristics of Novasolum are relevant.

The NGU would take a non-partisan role in giving answers to everyone who is a participant in the Novasolum fantasy environment. A government may decide to build a new road; the NGU would be on hand to suggest the best route. A person may wish to plant an orchard; the NGU would be able to give temperature and rainfall figures for the area in question. We might add Time Zones to our continent; the NGU would supply the longtiudes for all the cities and provinces and advise the best way to draw the time zone boundaries.

Part of this role would be, and should be, liaison with the Micronational Cartography Society. At some level, our collective will must be imposed on the MCS. At another level, it will be nothing less than polite to involve the MCS when our starting material was, after all, their map.

3. To act as a META-level authority for adjudication, advice and rulemaking in role-playing matters pertaining to the Novasolum continent and its geoscience.

This third role is an extension of #2 above, but "outside the fantasy". The NGU in this role would decide, for example, how much coal was in a certain grid square, and a mining company which role-plays a mine there would get its tonnage from the NGU. This is part of the vital role of gamesmastering (or, for Dungeons and Dragons veterans like myself, dungeonmastering) where an all-knowing referee provides controls, information and scenarios for the players in the game.

Membership

Membership of the NGU would be open to any interested person - from any micronation - but it would be governed by a Board consisting of five members, one from each of the Novasolum nations. If the Board representative from one nation were to resign, he would be replaced on the Board by an NGU member from the same nation. The Board of the NGU would have a private mandate for Role #3 above; the entire NGU membership would contribute to the other, more open, work.

Administration and Operation

The NGU should have forums of its own, to enable the members and the Board to discuss business. Whether those forums are contained within the forums of one of our nations, or opened as new forums standing alone, is an open question. If the NGU is to have its "headquarters" in one of our micronations, the location should be chosen for the best convenience of the members. Not all forums are equal.

The NGU should also operate like a real-world institution, with a budget for its operations. Members should pay membership subscriptions, governments and organisations should pay a fee for receiving advice, and so on. And the NGU should pay the costs of survey missions, aerial photography, weather station operations, and so on - these costs would be paid to the governments of the nations whose territory is involved (eg, for exploring the Helion River, the government of Anthelia would levy a fee for providing accomodation, transport and supplies). All of this would help the development of our economies.

Conclusions

I know that Alexandria has a Geographical Institute. The national role of a body like that would not be wholly usurped, but the NGU would indeed take over from the five member nations some of the prerogatives of "designing" the land. The reason for this is the benefit it would bring to all of us by adopting and agreeing on a collective approach. It would be a local form of the MCS - we all recognised the authority of the MCS when we decided to ask for land on their map - except that the NGU would go into a far far deeper level of detail.

I look forward to everyone's comments.

President Darcy,

Would this institute extend itself only to Novasolum? Alexandria spans from Cibola to Novasolum, and I am asking if our Cibolan parts would be affected by this organization.

I think this is most definetly worth following. I am in favour and will post this link back to Gotzborg to gain some more comments and ideas.

ACII

I'm in favor of this as well. Though I doubt I would get this deep into the fantasy of it to ever need to know the amout of coal in some pixels, but to each his own ^_^

Natopia's Imperial Cartography Society has been making some maps other than just the cut and paste Natopia-only map we lifted from the MCS. Certainly what little resources we have are available to the NGU.

I am definetely in favor of this measure - but I do have some criticisms: this could curtail a nation's national sovereignty.

For example, I, as Emperor of Alexandria, would like to keep the power of renaming and naming geographical features within my country. Also, I feel this organization would have too much power in regards to how the cities and towns within the Empire itself would look like in the map.

Emperor Edgard - The NGU's work would focus primarily on Novasolum, but in studying such things as climate there might be relevance to the other lands on Micras. Nevertheless, I would not expect the NGU to be making maps of Cibola.

As for your concerns in your second reply, you can rest at ease. The NGU would not take away the rights of naming a feature, or designing a town. The role of the NGU would be to explore the continent to precisely define the location of a river or the local land features near a town. If a nation decided to build a new city then the NGU would advise, not order, although I would expect the national government to pay attention to the NGU's expertise.

In my opinion, the physical terrain and the existence of mineral resources, forests or grasslands, plants and animals, are all matters of nature and not sovereignty. The United States did not decide to have a Mississippi River - it was there before the nation - and I am keen to see Novasolum's physicality worked out in the same way. By God :)

Emperor Nathan - The work already done by your Imperial Cartography Society would be a greta help to us, naturally. Thanks for the link. And you never know what information you might want to have about your land in years to come.

ah, aye. This is good. I of course agree with His Imperial Majesty, Edgard II on this.

Thank you for adressing my concerns, President Darcy. :D

lets move forth with this honorable delegates.

PM.Poiters. Serving Alexandria.

For Gotzborg, the next main goal is the construction and establishment of the national railway network. We move one step closer to this with KSag's recent release of a new locomotive which our national railway will consider primary when the time comes to put steel wheels to rail.

ACII

Of course, YRM, I have seen the advertisement promoting the new locomotive, and a very nice machine it seems to be.

Only problem is, Anthelia has electrified railroads, at least on the main lines connecting our four established cities. If our territory is expanded in the centre and southwest of the continent, we may need to construct new railroads there which may not be able to carry the electric locomotives. And, of course, if our two nations' railroads are joined up at one or two suitable border crossing points, then provision will need to be made in our stations and yards for Gotzborg's engines and rolling stock.

So, it is a complex project but a worthwhile one.

Mr Darcy,

Thanks for your reply, it is indeed always a challenge to link two nations railways together to provide for more harmonious facilitation of trade. As long as we agree to consider ourselves on the same 'guage' of railway, we can work the differences of locomotives with no problem.

Although Anthelia runs electric, I am not sure what kind of motors you utilize, although depending electrics can be quite effective in mountainous areas. KSag is working on finalizing its first electric road unit as well as an electric switcher unit, however there have been some problems with the electrical systems currently available to them.

I as well think its a worthwhile project and can see railroad connections at this point between Aufsatz in the north, Taganrog in the south (with the expansion) and between Bergbau and Sprodj.

Every railroad has facilities to rest, and repair locomotives, so that automatically provides the basis for interaction. When the time comes I would propose that we pay for the electrification of lines from the border into the closest border/transfer yards while Anthelia would pay for the construction of steam fueling, water and coaling facilities. The ongoign maintenance and supply for each sides responsibilities would I think allow that issue to balance itself out.

Each of our nations will already have yards for the storage of rolling stock, and with guages being the same, it will simply be a matter that goods and items into Anthelia on Gotzborg rolling stock will have to be delivered to their destination unloaded and returned empty, as opposed to being reassigned as a normal piece would.

I would possibly look at the creation of an Association of Novasolum Railroads to consider some form of standardization of rolling stock plans, which in itself may create some simplicity to the whole process.

All good stuff.

ACII