User talk:Elemtilas

Padraic, please take a look at the Ribeira Affair if you want to add anything relating to Florida-Caribbea. BoArthur 09:06, 4 Mar 2005 (PST)

They look good. One of these days, I'll have to add my own stuff on Florida to the Wiki page...Also, be alert to some Interesting Developments in the never ending Floridian saga...Elemtilas

Bureaucrat

Padraic, you've been promoted! I've made you a bureaucrat of this wiki. This makes it possible for you to: 1) delete and undelete pages; 2) protect and unprotect pages; 3) appoint other sysops and bureaucrats; 4) block users; 5) revert to earlier versions of pages by using the "rollback" option; 6) more funny stuff I can't think of at the moment. You will have an extra star on your tricorn hat, and your annual fee will be raised from £6/0/0 to £12/0/0. --IJzeren Jan 01:41, 19 October 2005 (PDT)

I'ld like to thank the Academy...

Honestly, you're gonna have to explain the Funny Stuff to me. I don't really consider myself computer literate anymore! Cor. An extra star? And I guess the extra six knicker will go to good use...hopefully into hiring anyone bùt a Helvetian chef this comming year? [PB]

AMEN to that! BoArthur

Quod Dicem?

What was it that you were saying in all your spam blockage? I have a feeling that it's either nonsense and/or quite funny. BoArthur 19:08, 12 December 2005 (PST)

You have to start at the bottom (Sunt in universitate) and work your way up! You'll find it is, er, a very early tract on getting an astronaut into space and to the Sun of all places! -- The big joke being "hominem facillime sic in caelum mittere, nocte media!"

Blocking

I'm not sure that blocking anonymous IP's is worth the trouble. As far as I can tell, the spammers have yet to reuse an IP Nik 19:25, 12 December 2005 (PST)

Until we can change to users-only, I'd rather not allow them the chance! Elemtilas

Question on Ecotopism

Padraic, do you know who came up with Ecotopia in IB?

Kind of hard to pin it on any one person. Andrew certainly gave us a Kemr (and by extension, Britain) that that is a little more ecologically sensitive than *here*, though by no means an ecotopia as defined. This was one of the chief aspects that originally attracted Jorg R. to meld his project (now the KWL project), though he didn't last long. I made sure that Dunein was among the ecologically aware, especially in the last century's development of ecotopism and ecologically sound economics. It was John C. who decided that Oregon should be an ecotopic republic. He never worked out any details, though I gave it the Cyrillic alphabet and flag early on. Until now, no one has actually worked out what ecotopism actually encompasses. A good thing you decided to take it on!

I guess it fits, de facto independence for LA, de facto ecotopism. :) I guess I will. That gives me some good information.

I wonder if the great Cowan had this in mind when he suggested what he did about Oregon.... BoArthur

I believe so, at least in principle if not in all the particulars. I haven't read the book, so don't know how the information in Ecotopia would fint IB. Elemtilas 10:59, 3 February 2006 (PST)

Should Bretagne move to Brittany?

What do you think? Should I change the article from Bretagne (France) to Brittany? BoArthur 17:17, 2 March 2006 (PST)

If it were me, I'd name the article "Brehun", which is the native name for the place. Brittany is the English (Saxon) name for the place, and is naturally the name I use when talking about it -- I would nòt suggest using this as the article name. Alternatively, the article could be called "Cornouaille", which is the French name for the place. This however might result in an Uproar in the duchy and a general casting of shredded official French papers into the streets.

I might also suggest incorporating the native names for the internal divisions, as found on Talk:France, though it must be noted that I don't know if France has passed any kind of dual language legislation for the duchy. It is probably still the case that all "official" papers, road signs, etc have to be ìn French rather than Brehonecq. Remains to be seen.

I am unsure of the present ramifications on the Bretons, but a mention might be made of the Dumnonian High King's antics of a couple years ago. Elemtilas 18:02, 2 March 2006 (PST)

As expert on Royal Antics, please, add an illustration of His Majesty's foibles. :) BoArthur

Assumptions about IB

You meantioned that Tesla Generators are one of the two assumptions about IB. What's the other one? BoArthur 07:34, 25 April 2006 (PDT)

I was rather hoping someone else would have recalled the details (I know Nik asked this question, too). I recall that it had to do with the properties of a certain kind of Siberian plant. It might have been a medicinal property -- anyway, we assumed that the plant in question has the properties associated with it, perhaps folkloristic properties. I know that as it stands, that isn't much help. Elemtilas 18:54, 25 April 2006 (PDT)

Hmm ... that rings a faint bell, but I thought that it ended up not being part of IB. I'm not even sure what to search for in the archives for more info, though Nik 19:29, 25 April 2006 (PDT)

Well, it could well be that the plan was ultimately abandoned. If so, I wasn't aware of that. If I ever come across a reference, I'll make note here. Elemtilas 14:39, 26 April 2006 (PDT)

Latin Translation?

Can you translate: "Faster, Dumber and two times as Dangerous" into latin? BoArthur 10:57, 19 May 2006 (PDT)

Perhaps "Celerior, Stultior et Duplus Periculosus". Elemtilas 16:40, 25 May 2006 (PDT)

Telephony

Do you mean like, NA-01-0123? --Quentin 05:52, 1 July 2006 (PDT)

Ah, what I mean is this. If your parents had the telephone number AAM-2-4455 (Aamsterdam-2-4455), anyone who knew where the geographical boundaries of the exchange AAM-2 are would know in what neighbourhood you used to live. As the number of telephones exceeds 9999*9 the solution might be to split the metropolis into say two great geographical regions and give each one a new zone (different from both the province's area code AND from the city exchange code). Say, 01 and 02 for upper and lower or East Side and West Side (whatever!). This would double the amount of available telephone numbers -- but it would also mean that someone on the other side of town will have your parents' telephone number (AAM-2-4455), only now the two are differentiated by zone codes: 01-AAM-2-4455 and 02-AAM-2-4455. The old geographical distinction of the AAM-2 exchange is lost in this situation. If a very dense region like New Aamsterdam is divided into four or ten such regions, then the number of duplicate telephone numbers increases accordingly. Elemtilas 06:04, 1 July 2006 (PDT)

Er, no, I think that wouldn't be a good Idea, it would be better if local names were used such as HAA-1-0123 for Haarlem and BRE-1-0123 for Breuklen or however it is spelt. That seems overcomplicated. Is that OK? --Quentin 06:16, 1 July 2006 (PDT)

Ah, OK. That would certainly alleviate New Aamsterdam's problem. I think there are enough boroughs to keep them in distinct telephone numbers for a good long while, especially since mobile phones and pagers aren't the norm they are *here*! Your revision doesn't seem overcomplicated at all! If you'd like, I can work on some for Ter Mair. Elemtilas 06:27, 1 July 2006 (PDT)

Thanks! I won't be too liberal with actual amounts. Please may I alter the page on the NAL telephone system to update our discussion? --Quentin 06:54, 1 July 2006 (PDT)

But of course! It's your proposal after all! Elemtilas 07:37, 1 July 2006 (PDT)

OK, it's just the moratum. --Quentin 07:38, 1 July 2006 (PDT)

Cosh'em...

You can adjust anything he said in the book...you are, after all, the voice of the man we love to furrow our brows at. :) BoArthur 16:47, 16 February 2007 (PST)

Well, let me tell thee this, Larry, that book is chock full o lies. That's right, chock full. Them war mongerin Loozianans just pack in the lies by the hectarefull.

The "hectarefull", Mr Sessions? So, have you read the book as of yet?

Read it...!? Why, Larry; why should I waste my time on double-crossin satan inspired lies written by some Loozianan drunk? Well, known fact, Larry King, all Loozianans are drunkards of the worst sort. Cavortin with them blue Martians is wot does it.

C & A

Hiya, Padraic! Just in case you're interested, I've finally translated this piece of text I should have translated already years ago! http://steen.free.fr/wenedyk/texts.html#christ_abgar.

Cheers, —IJzeren Jan ^Uszkiełtu? 12:17, 13 August 2007 (PDT)

Very nicely done! The whole page, really -- so many texts. I see the Petricon made it in there, too!

Hehe, thank you. Yes, the Petricon made it in there as well. A few years back, it served as a translation exercise, if I recall correctly!

Really!? I must have forgotten that, or never knew!

My texts page contains virtually anything I've ever translated into Wenedyk (except for the IB Wiki Main Page in Wenedyk, Dan's introduction page to Louisianne and a few other things). It's growing steadily. I should probably break up the page, because it's getting too big.

You might consider subpages for translation relays, one to showcase your IB Wiki pages (the Front Page, etc), one for miscellaneous exercises.

About Christ and Abgar... A few years ago, you sent samples of that texts to Conlang and Conculture in several languages. Not only Brithenig and Kerno, but also Paesan and Sorbado. Wouldn't it be nice to have that stuff here on the wiki somewhere? Or elsewhere online?

They're not online elsewhere. And yes, it would probably be a good idea to stick them on the Wiki. I know there's a few references to this epistle as a matter of customary veneration among Cambrian Rite and English Catholic peoples, so I might make a new page specifically devoted to that aspect of IB life.

BTW, you sent two different versions in Kerno. Are they still actual?

Looking at them, I think only the new orthography version is current. It would certainly reflect the High King's decree that a single standard orthography be chosen for the language. There's also three Brithenig versions -- one standard, one Paesan and one that is in the Brithenig dialect spoken in Dunein. I even tried Esperanto, Interlingua and Quenya of all things (have no idea how correct it is, though!), along with Spanish, Catalunian, OE, Gothic and Latin.

Cheers, —IJzeren Jan ^Uszkiełtu? 05:55, 16 August 2007 (PDT)

Cheers! Well, I guess that's one item for the To Do list! ;)

San Antonio Archbishop

Hi! Do you have any idea who the Archbishop of San Antonio might be? Do you have any preferences? Is this person a Cardinal do you think? Might he also carry the title of Primate (since I presume he oversees the Catholic Church in Tejas)? Frankly, I am presuming this is the person who will crown King Juan Carlos of Tejas. Thanks in advance! Zahir 08:34, 21 September 2007 (PDT)

Let me dust off me telespeculon... The Archbishop of San Antonio is a fellow called Jose Maria Fernandez-Ochoa (if that doesn't fit with IB Castillian, please correct). He is presently 83 and not healthy. There has not been a cardinalate in Tejas for many years. There has been speculation that the Queen (Maria Gabrielle), on one of her visits to the Papal States, persuaded the Pope of Rome to consider elevating a future Tejan bishop to the principality, should Tejas prove its worth as a rejuvenated and reformed modern country. There has been speculation in the Roman press that such a move is forthcomming. The Pope has been mulling over candidates, but is playing his cards close in. Speculation is, of course, running wild, and Laredo's Julio Cesar Garcia-Mendes and a Mejican bishop called Luis Hernan Nunes-Balboa are two top contenders. If Fernandez does not retire in the next year or so, or doesn't die or isn't compelled to retire due to health concerns, he could be transferred to another position or called to Rome for a time in order for a new bishop to take over.

Suffice to say that the new king will be crowned and anointed by the old archbishop.

Speaking of who's who in Church matters, I now know who the next Pope of Rome will be. It will be a little while yet, but I've had him in mind for some time. Elemtilas 14:48, 21 September 2007 (PDT)

Princely Marriage?

I was wondering who would officiate at the wedding of the respective heirs of Oltenia and Mantua? One is Latin Rite whereas the other is Byzantine. The wedding itself is to take place in Rome, so I thought perhaps whoever more-or-less heads up the Byzantine Rite might officiate. How does that sound? But who would this be? Your help is much appreciated...! Zahir 19:36, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

Actually, I would suggest that since the princess is Latin Rite and she's marrying more or less on home turf that he would defer to her tradition for the marriage. Very gallant and romantic, see. The present bishop of Mantua is Carlo Poma. Probably, Oltenia would bring along his own entourage of prelates who would concelebrate the liturgy (and undoubtedly offer special blessings). Gurie Savu is the Metropolitan Archbishop of Oltenia. As to what church in Rome, St. Sussana's is popular; or St. John Lateran. Elemtilas 00:22, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Thankee much! Actually, I think you've correctly interpreted what Nicolae himself would choose, but keep in mind the ceremony was the result of negotiations between their two governments. So methinks Archbishop Savu will officiate, and at one of the two churches you've mentioned. Again, thankee so much! Zahir 16:59, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

In other words, they'll have a Byzantine wedding after all!? ;) Elemtilas 02:39, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Pavelism

Just wanted to call your attention of this article: Pavelists I don't believe I'm intruding in any way, because these article really deals with conspiracy theories and Romania rather than anything to do with the Catholic Church. As you can probably tell, it is blend of the so-called Siri Thesis and the JFK assassination, blended with some neo-Snorist drivel. Let me know what you think... Zahir 16:50, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

I've made a reply on Conculture. Actually, I think the proposal is rather good! I don't think it needs to be changed, but I did point out a couple things that may or may not affect the proposal. Elemtilas 19:05, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Rhodes

Mr Xeight asked for some clarification as to what has just happened on Conculture of late. Good questions indeed!

Can you explain what's going on, I just skimmed it and read people's comments. All I know is...

• They don't want a war
• They don't want Rhodes to be a condominium
• They owned a while back
• Something about Greek politicians blowing things out of proportion.

If I'm over ruled on corruption, I get to execute the politicians.

I think it's all being made pretty clear. But like so many such international incidents "clear" is often a synonym for "muddy". Jeff wrote an article that didn't really say much of anything, just mentioned a rumoured proposal regarding the Turkish island of Rhodes being returned to Malta. Clearly, the Knights don't want the island to be invaded and retuned as a consequence of war on the part of Greece.

No one has said anything at all about a condominium. That would be between Malta and Turkey, and thus far, they have not reached such an agreement.

Rhodes hasn't been Hospitaller territory since the early XVJ century -- no worries there!

The Greek foreign minister has been quoted as vehemently denying rumours and then all but confirming the rumours again -- in the NAL, we call that "tiddlywinking", after the way the chips flip and flop about. The rush-rush nature of his remarks lead some international events watchers convinced that there is actually some substance to the rumours, and that Greece must be seriously planning to storm the world with its own brand of imperialism, rather than just gob on about it.

Interesting times will be had by all, before long!

Your Attention Please

Nota Bene

Miscellaneous

Wandell's Sack of Angera and Tsuutam's Tsarqan Nevesht and Zandam's Imperial Garden Music.

Hazard

Your review of my offering for the game board is requested. - BoArthur 18:29, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

Overall, it looks brilliant. I interspersed a couple comments on the talk page, but will add a couple more here:

• I do think South America and Asia are too close in colour scheme.
• Why is Bornei-Filipinas changed to "Indonesia"?
• Could "Hudson's Bay" be stripped of the "(NAL-SLC)" label? In other words, just make it a different territory?
• I actually like the African map -- I wouldn't combine Egypt and Sudan. I think South Africa is balanced, in relative size, by Guinea; and also Kongo is pretty big.
• Aesthetically speaking, perhaps the huge straight strokes that mark water borders could be muted somewhat? Some kind of grey line of demarcatio, or perhaps slightly different ocean colours for those regions?
• Also for aesthetics, could the white box in the lower left corner be shortened a little bit? There's a lot of extra white space to the right of the longest line of text that is not in balance with the white space to the left of the colour codes. This also, I think, puts the whole box too close to South America -- I'd like to see a little more ocean blue separating those two elements.
• For the final version of the game board, I think some kind of suitably militaristic and decorative border round the whole thing will be in order. Something that doesn't distract or detract from the board itself.

• I really liked the triangular game board idea -- a fascinating concept which I'd have to steal for a Riskesque game from the World. :) For that matter, triangular shaped maps might be an interesting concept in general in that world. They allow one to focus on the Center of the World rather clearly. Also, the triangular map would have allowed us to make use of Antarctica -- a vital part of the IB political scene (and potential war-games scene) that doesn't even appear on the Hazard board. Mind you, I don't suggest any change; just am lamenting the lack.

Catalan

Could I work on an IB Catalan resembling Narbonosc? Seeing how close Catalan is to Occitan *here*, and the fact that Catalan seems to be more or less untaken, I think I could work it into what you Cambrians call "The World". Juan Martin Velez Linares 9:14, 28 August 2015 (CDT)

Si us plau, fes ho! Elemtilas 19:01, 29 August 2015 (PDT)

Gracies, el meu senyor! Will get to work on it right away. Juan Martin Velez Linares 23:10, 1 September 2015 (CDT)

2015 election for the NAL-SLC?

There is an election supposed to have happened (or will happen this month) in 2015, right?

If so, there should be a bit of discussion about it.

Who would be the people best to discuss this with?

Thank you in advance Celeste Lavender 16:15, 3 December 2015 (PST)

Coalitions in the NAL-SLC

Connected to that, is there anybody who I can discuss the parliamentary make-ups and coalition agreements in NAL history with?

Gwilliam Lyon MacDowell probably had the Socialists in his cabinet since they seem to be the most sympathetic to his pro-labor and reformist agenda as detailed in his wikipage.

There's mention of a "Grand Coalition" between the Progressive Conservatives and Whigs in James Wainwright's term, which probably was quite controversial and might have pushed the Conservative Party to form.

Basically I want to get to grips with parliamentary politics in the NAL-SLC. So, as with my above question, who should I talk to?

With all respect Celeste Lavender 14:22, 6 December 2015 (PST)

Good questions all! John Cowan did most of the work on the NAL proper, but there was never any single caretaker of the place. Probably Jan or Dan would be your best bets of those currently still active. Otherwise, and especially for more recent political shennanigans, feel free to offer your own proposls! Elemtilas 11:18, 9 December 2015 (PST)

By Jan, you mean IJzeren Jan, right? Celeste Lavender 14:59, 9 December 2015 (PST)

Yes, yes indeed! Elemtilas 11:18, 10 December 2015 (PST)

Ter Mair

Dear Padraic,

It's been awhile since we've spoken. It might be coming up close to a decade. My memory of our days conversing on the Yahoo Group are getting hazy. Marc Pasquin just informed me the other week that all Yahoo Groups will be pulled down, alas. In the time between our first correspondence and now, I've started high school, finished high school, started college in D.C., finished college in D.C., moved to Athens, moved back to D.C., and moved back to my native Chicago. I'm quite the different person I'd say since I stumbled upon Ill Bethisad purely by accident as an eighth grader.

How can we forget the impetuous and full of himself Mr X8!? But of course, we knew you'd eventually grow up & mature out of that, as all the rest of us did in our time. I wouldn't say you're "quite a different person" so much as you have been and continue to become the person you were destined to be from before the beginning.

I was considering a move back to D.C. for the first time since October of 2017, but it didn't work out job-wise. Anytime I'm convinced I'm about to move somewhere, I throw myself into learning about its history. Sometimes I even dabble in dreaming up alternate history scenarios for it. D.C. was no exception. At first it started as me just fleshing out alternate Georgetown ("‘La Yniwersidad di Castre Geory Saeth" if my Brithenig is correct), but it's exploded into me filling in the details between what you came up with for the colony of Ter Mair. It's been a lot of fun, honestly. I've come up with names for the real life Jesuits led by Fr. Andrew White who founded a school for colonists' children as well as a mission to the autonomous Yaocomico group and the broader Nanticoke Confederacy. I'm most interested in the power dynamics between the Yaocomico and the settlers. To be brief, I imagine Ter Mair as a humid Uruguay. I'd love to explain to you why and maybe use notes of yours that never made it onto the Conculture subgroup to align it with what I have. I don't want to step on your toes as a native Marylander. I'm just an outsider.

I'd quite forgotten you lived here in the Swamp for a time. It does actually please me greatly that you've considered expanding upon the history of T.M. My hope is that you will continue to do so! Don't worry about stepping on my toes: I've long since withdrawn from any active participation, though I still check from time to time what's going on here. I remain astounded that IB is still quite the active shard world. A few old timers are still active (Andrew S. and Jan and Marc of course); and you and Pedro and now a whole third or fourth generation of folks on the Facebook group.

I don't feel at all bad or put upon by you taking up the glorious flag of Ter Mair and waving it about in the faces of the other Provinces, so you have my blessing to take the place over. I don't know what notes I have, though I know I have some maps around somewhere. If they're not already online, I'll work on a) finding them and b) scanning them so you can put them to good use.

Primarily, I hope to pick your brain and figure out which specific parts of the colony spoke and/or still speak Kernow. Its rules are difficult for me to grasp so I haven't been very good at coming up with alternate terms for North American phenomena (I tried to come up with a Cornish calque for "Les Coureurs de Bois" and the best I could come up with was "Llo Cyrrirurs di lla Busc" for Brithenig and a mere scrounging up of “currer” meaning “to run” [but no “runner”], “mbosce” for “woods," “broxis,” “brouckla,” “forestá” meaning wild land preserves, “Ils” for “the [pl]" but also “y." I haven't been able to put any of that concisely together). This might go against the more lighthearted spirit of the late '90's and early 2000's Ill Bethisad, but I'd love to get some hard facts jotted down, like "this is [X] County. It's located where Prince George's County is in real life Maryland. The county is majority African-American and surprisingly their ancestors adopted the Kernow language before they learned Brithenig. Cornish culture is alive and well here, with annual festivals celebrating the language and culture and the African-American contributions to both." I wasn't around for the brainstorming phase of IB, but I can be around for the details phase and the fleshing out. I do hope that you could accommodate a thriving Gaeilg scene in Ter Mair beyond Balafor as well. I hate reading my own messages from 2008-'09 because I still had a child's mind, but I found a genuinely interesting idea of mine about a colony of Greeks in English Virginia. I was able to put a more educated spin on it. I came up with a late 1600's charter from the king in Castreleon giving the descendants of Byzantine refugees a charter to found an agricultural settlement in Ter Mair. "La Llan Grega" became over time just the smallish town of "Llangrega, Ter Mair."

Feel free to pick away! Wow. Black Kerno speakers! That never crossed my mind! They'd probably outnumber the population of Kerno speakers in Kemr all on their own. And don't worry about your old posts --- you were indeed quite young when you discovered us! I don't think any of us ever held that against you; though I'm quite happy you stuck with us!

As for Kerno itself, there is a link to download a pdf of the Grammar here: http://www.frathwiki.com/Kerno

I also have a great deal of ideas for Cyprus. The lion's share are mostly about the various ethnic groups of island but for that I need to tweak Byzantine, Crusader, Venetian, Ottoman, and English history on the isle. I drew up some alternate news articles regarding Christmas on the island and then ethnic tensions that led to killings in 2017 and a declaration of a breakaway state that only lasted a few days before the hostage situation came to a close and the breaker-away'ers could seek annexation into the Sublime Porte. My articles totally bombed on the Facebook group. I understand that everyone's busy in real life, but it's eerie how quiet that group is. I have thus far been unable to turn that around and make it a viable medium of warm, friendly interaction of old members. With your permission I'd also like to develop contemporary Cypriot history and be bold, maybe keep it in the Commonwealth but removing Diana as the Head of State to make a republic which doesn't fall into the trap of Greek president/Turkish vice president, or get weird and maybe give all citizens on the island dual-Cypriot and then either Greek or Ottoman citizenship of their choosing. That's all very much not sketched out yet. Ben's helping me understand Lingua Franca aka Sabir so as to make the household language of Cypriot Catholics a close sibling of his Parra of the Crimean peninsula. I feel like you of all people would like a strong and healthy Catholic minority on the island.

Good, good --- please keep at it!

Do you have a Gmail by any chance? I'd love to send you my Google doc where I compile all my crackpot ideas. My new content (none of it approved yet) started off just as a sketch of Chicago, but to do that I had to learn about Ouisconsin, to do that I had to comprehend NAL history, to do that I have to find the histories and cultures of the colonies-turned-dominions of the Eastern seaboard. I've taken up designing alternate-Alba Nuadh and Massachusetts because I have to. If anyone would take either off my hands, I'd be truly relieved. If you do have an account with Google, I'd prefer if we keep our personal emails off this very public website. Would I be able to forward my Google to you via Daniel's help?

I'll look and see. I think I have something with Google...

Many thanks, Misterxeight 21:49, 27 October 2019 (PDT)

Good to hear from you! Elemtilas 06:58, 8 November 2019 (PST)

It's good to hear from you, too. Dan offered to email you on my behalf a few weeks ago, but I jumped at the chance when I saw your account active here,

Unfortunately I must admit that Kerno is a bit over my head. That ebook you put together is quite impressive, but applying what your book teaches to make real words and phrases has been proving a bit difficult. I'm taking this very personally. I want to make my Brithenig and Kerno look real like something you the experts would do. Brithenig has been a bit easier. Using Mr. Smith's dictionary up on Jan's website, I came up with some stuff I think isn't too far off the mark (like 'Llo Cyrrirurs di lla Busc' for 'the runners of the woods' aka "les Coureurs de bois"), but I've done some not so great work, like trying to say "the Isle of the Annunciation" for the real life St. Clement's island because I thought March 25th, 1634 would be as good as any date for the Jesuits to land ("L’Ysl di Anynhiaradiwn" looks ugly). I was also trying to make alternate names for the five Jesuits that founded Maryland & Georgetown (Andrew White, John Altham Gravenor, Thomas Gervase, Thomas Copley and Ferdinand Poulton) and I thought it would nice to have a multiethnic force so I had two Cambrians, some kind of Norman (I keep forgetting that someone from 1998 politely asked for surviving paganism in the Channel Islands so anyone Norman is going to have be either from Normandy proper or England), and the fifth guy as someone who was some kind of English-Kemrese hybrid for the borderlands so his surname reflected his mixed heritage. I came up with "Ferdinando Llagunton" which is laughably ugly-looking in hindsight. Coming up with "the runners of the woods" in Kerno and a better alternate 1:1 parallel for "Bretton's Neck" in MD better than "Kernowman's Neck" are my two white whales. From your book I found that “currer” is “to run," “mbosce”=“woods.” It also has “broxis,” “brouckla,” “forestá”=wild land preserves. “Ils” is “the (pl).” It could also be “y.”

Well, Kerno I'm sure is a bit over the heads of most Kernow, which is probably why most of them speak Brithenig anymore.

Ben wants to keep your idea going that the French of the Great Lakes come from a highly mixed stock of French, Natives, African freemen, but also Kemrese and Cornishmen above all. We came up with the idea of the "Hautpaysois"/"Hautpaysians" (Marc likes the former, Dan prefers the latter) being the third pole of Francophonity in North America, and they definitely will have a Brythonic twang in how they speak and a Celtic twist on how they worship in the Latin Rite. Oh and may I ask, how would you transliterate the Algonquin term "witchott" for a native style of house? The Yaocomico of the St. Mary's area were actually overjoyed at the coming of the Catholics because they were fleeing south to evade Iroquoian/Susquehannock raids and they gave the English their villages to move into so as to act as a buffer between them and the raiders. I find the Native history of the Mid-Atlantic extremely confusing so I'm afraid that I'm going to screw something up.

Coo, more Franocphonity! I would hazard that Kerno transliteration is characteristically wonky. Possibly oueytchotta or oueitchutta.

One thing I absolutely want to do before you go is truly see Ter Mair from your eyes. Which counties/ridings did you envision Kerno sticking around in? I think something clued me off that Kerno is not an official language of the entirety of Ter Mair, only that it has equal status with Brithenig in some administrative regions and/or is a protected language. The same would go for the Piscataway language I reckon. Baltimore was apparently empty forest so no ethnicity got displaced on its foundation which I'm over the moon about because I hate having to write sad things into my AH, but handwaving and the power of friendship only go so far in human existence. Above all I want to make something realistic for the audience. I'm glad that slavery wasn't that big either, but I figured a noticeable subset of what few slaves forced to go to Ter Mair would learn Kerno because that's what their masters spoke. There are tales of real life slaves knowing Scots Gaelic in Georgia and the last speakers of Dutch in New Jersey were all African-Americans and born into slavery. That was my inspiration for the largest faction carrying the torch of Kerno-icity being African-Americans. They didn't get to choose to come to America, but they can make that language their own. It will of course have influences from their numerous ancestors' tongues, and English, and certainly Irish/Gaeilg (I never got used to its alt spelling in IB, ha), and it might even be different from the way Kerno-speakers of 100% European ancestry speak it, but it will still be Kerno nevertheless.

Cool! I'd always figured that Kerno would be most evident in the west (Frederick Co and beyond) and Southern Maryland (Charles, Calvert and St. Mary's on the Left Bank; Talbot, Caroline and so forth on the Right Bank and the coastal counties and the islands -- probably mostly in the back country and among fishing communities). I don't think I ever named any of the counties, but those names would all be Brithenig anyway. I suspect there are far fewer counties as well: I think the borders of 1742 are closest to what I'd envision (https://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/map/map.html#MD). I'm sure Georgetown is the seat for Co Prince Gereint.

I'd suggest that St. Mary's Co remain but perhaps rename Charles & Calvert (maybe Native names (famous taiacqes perhaps?) or name them after recent Kings (Dweidd & Donal)). Dorchester & Somerset & Worcester all need renaming: I'd suggest local / Native names to replace the English toponyms. Frederick is too Germanic: I'd suggest Co Constantine (with or without Prince / King / Emperor). Baltimore should remain as is. Anne Arundell & Queen Anne's should probably be renamed for some (prominent) consorts of Kemrese kings or else an early Proprietor's wife. Talbot could remain as is, there being a good Irish connexion there.

Before I forget, is Kerno doing any better in the Brehun region of France? In your mind, did you ever have any numeric figures on how many Kerno speakers exist in Dunein, France, in Louisianne, Hong Kong, Ter Mair, other parts of the NAL etc? Is that something you'd like newer members to figure out? Also, might Irish/Gaeilg have any official status in Mary's Land? That would go a long way to keeping it alive. I'm pessimistic that it could survive and thrive in an urban center like Ballifor but I'm willing to make an exception on handwaving away linguistic death because an urban accent of Irish in the New World is too cool to pass up, but I'd also like to consider dotting the Marylander landscape with Irish villages just to also keep it alive in small towns across the province. Ben has given me a ton of freedom in designing Chicago's history and its contemporary neighborhoods, and he was more than happy to allow me to give Chicago an official Gaeltacht located on an alternate Goose Island. Perhaps Ter Mair can follow suit in the '90's and declare some small sliver a Gaeltacht, too.

I know there was a news article about the decline of Kerno in Kemr. I don't recall any details, but I believe the prognosis was that it would no longer be speoken as an L1 by the teens or twenties of the 21st century. I think the Brehuns, fond as they are of throwing all official papers into the streets in protest of any slightest incursion of Francophonity, are probably doing rather better. For all that they do actually speak French, when the need arises. I'm sure it's probably much healthier in the NAL and Louisianne, though gradually becoming more distinct from its European cousins. Probably none in HK to speak of (expats, perhaps). I'd suspect there would be some bleed-over into northern Virginia and Pennsylvania on either side of the border. Probably more diffuse use out towards Louisianne and possibly some trouble makers up in the UT.

One thing I was also hoping you could choose since I want to honor your legacy in IB and not stomp on your old stuff even though I'm honored you've given me carte-blanche to write what I please is how the Cambrians worked with Native groups. I came up with two options. Either the position of tayac (arch-chief which Andrew White translated as 'imperator' in his diary) of the Piscataway becomes a title with formal powers in the colony of Ter Mair and this continues on into the dominion of Ter Mair’s law code (like Botswana or Cameroon), or the Kemrese expect the tayac to be merely a figurehead so the position devolves into one of merely being the leading male of a collection of several families. Ben had a similar idea for English Connecticut. Connecticut’s few Native-identifying people, if any, are probably way more assimilated than Ter Mair’s. The local Algonquian dialect I hope would live on here no matter how small or how perilously close it comes to extinction only to be saved by a massive revival effort in the 19th or 20th Centuries. The Catholic Church will be the best institution to help keep Natives’ genealogy alive & the title of “tayac” going. That's how real life people were able to figure out if they were Native or not, they checked Catholic baptismal records that kept footnotes about people being Native or not in the margins of baptismal records and weddings. Unlike Irish/Gaeilg/Gaeilge or Kerno which started strong in the 1600's & 1700's and got whittled down by the unavoidable trend of assimilation, the Piscataway language of the Algonquian language might actually grow if Kemr only wants to deal with one Native interest-group. If everyone in Ter Mair is declared Piscataway and they all have to learn this one language now, that means that Lenape, Iroquoian Susquehannock, Siouan Blackfoot and Tutelo, African slaves owned by natives, and European spouses, traders, and colonial admins all had to learn it. Disease will of course still take its toll. I can't save the Yaocomico, all I can do is have the bedraggled few (so probably 10% of 8-10k people) return to their old villages and meld into Kemrese society. I've been referring to Ter Mair as "humid Uruguay" in my notes because I think the two colonial scenarios are similar enough. Juan and I figured out that because Aragonese and Portuguese both spell it with an "i" that it'd be Uruguai, but that's beside the point. For reference, the average Uruguayan is 7% black and 2.4% Native. In Tacuarembó in the north of the country, people on avg. have about 20% Amerindian ancestry. Here’s where it gets interesting. In 2005, a study found that 38% of Uruguayos may have expressed partial genetic influence from the Native populace. I'm thinking that Ter Mair even still to this day has people who look noticeably Native American, whether being Piscataway is part of their identity or not.

Sounds reasonable to me. As for the Tayac, I suppose it could evolve to eventually become the title of what we so blandly call "county executives". Probably in the southern counties only. After all, Ter Mair still has its Lord Proprietor. I don't think the taiacqes would be hereditary, of course, though there would still be room for such if you determine that purely tribal systems of governance also exist in the province. If you think there is a sufficiently large a/o influential Native presence in that region, then perhaps one or two counties in that region could be given Native names? I'd suspect the other northern & western counties' local officers are either Mayors of Sheriffs.

I've probably gone on long enough now. I hope that this isn't information overload as you return back into retirement. I'm just so eager to show someone my ideas. Getting approval for stuff is difficult these days now that we operate on a skeleton crew.

Well, as I said, for my part you are given the carte blanche! I do check in every now and then just to see what's going on. Of course I'd be happy to take questions; but mostly I'm just pleased as punch that you're willing to continue the work!

Best, Misterxeight 09:13, 9 November 2019 (PST)

P.S. Ah jeez I forgot to ask your permission for something. Because England's Jews were expelled on cue in 1291 but they were able to all hop across the border to Kemr, could they all speak Angli, or probably more precisely Judæo-Angli because they undoubtedly would pepper their speech with Hebrew loanwords and write it in the Hebrew script. I have the first Jews in Ter Mair as Provençal-speakers to help jumpstart the viticulture industry there, but I have the feeling that the Anglo-French exile Jews of Kemr would outnumber the few Occitan vintners who move to St. Mary's or Baltimore. Whatever happened to the idea that Angli received official status in Les Plaines? Can that still happen or was the idea totally scrapped?

Sure! Just update the Angli article to reflect. The article says that Angli is spoken "extensively" in Les Plaines. Whether that means "lots of people speak it" or "a few people speak it over an extensive territory" I leave to thee! Whether those people in Les Plaines are Jews or otherwise, I'll also be interested in learning about! I think it probably doesn't have any official status in LP, just one of several heritage languages. Elemtilas 10:33, 20 December 2019 (PST)

Two Popes

Well, Juan piqued my interest and I find myself drawn back in even when I promised to never write another line for this franchise because our audience has long dried up. Social-distancing sucked me back in.

Well, here's hoping you stay! And I wouldn't say the audience has "dried up", not at all! It's not just "our little group" anymore. I find references to IB literally all over the place, from Reddit to Youtube to DeviantArt to Scribd and various other venues. Sure, it's not LotR popular, but for an intellectual exercise gone wild, I'd say that the wider audience is pleasing to me. And of course, much of the old gang is active still at Facebook -- you should join them!

You may have once been a 13 year old dweeb, but you're óur 13 year old dweeb! And anyway, people grow out of that phase. And you're still here! I'd urge you not to leave, so long as you have any interest in the project. I no longer have that interest, but am always pleased to find that Pedro & Juan & Ben & yourself are still actively contributing! And also we've got some new folks puttering about the place, too.

I noticed that you wanted to do a lot of stuff with the last two popes of IB, but Quentin weirdly stealth-edited it before you had a chance to flesh them out. If I can be honest, especially because he hasn't been active since 2011, but it's trash. He forgot midway through that he was making a unique person with no real parallel and then started copying Pope John aka Angelo Roncalli's wikipedia page verbatim. It was pure trash. So many people in our ancient group write stuff straight out of animes or comic books or whatever the kids read. It's not appreciated on my end.

I tried to synthesize what he was going for with what little snippets I could find of your vision. Now, here's what I changed from yours, and I hope that you can forgive me for disagreeing since this whole thing is your brainchild and I was just a 13 year old dweeb who like tried reinventing the wheel and writing Greek fascism into the tale, which honestly, I will never live down.

Electing an easterner from a Uniate sui-juris Church would undermine the very model of reunion that the papacy and especially the Melkites go for. It would imply that the papacy is a super-office above all the patriarchs and metropolitans of all the sub-Churches, instead of the papacy being the Latin West's chief spokesmen who happens to be united in communion with other autocephalous Churches around the globe. Everything that we Orthodox fear would happen would happen if the real life Easterner considered would have been chosen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorio_Pietro_Agagianian). So, my workaround was indeed to make him a patriarch of Antioch, and Jerusalem to boot—a Latin patriarch of Antioch, and then Jerusalem. Pope Angelo-turned-John was patriarch of Venice before his election so it works as a decent parallel. Quentin keeps his idea of the figure being a Levantine Christian adopted by Italians, you keep the idea of him being a Levantine Christian who was a patriarch before becoming a pope. I was thinking of sneaking in a reference to Cardinal Pole and I successfully snuck in that the real life Basil Bessarion from Trebizond was the last pope before Pope Gregory to not have been born in Europe. I just like flavor. A lot of it until Antioch and then a bit after the election to the office of pope is pulled from the real Pope John's life to boot. I really liked the story about Bergamo sending proxifications for a silver tiara to Pope John and him writing back to simplify it and donate the excess gems to the poor, just as I liked that he was stationed in my neck of the woods, the Eastern Med.

Now, the odds of you still retaining notes from 2006 are slim, but what did you have in mind for the Aragonese pope who we honestly need to retire peacefully. Honestly, one of the saddest parts of IB for me is that every country has politicians who took office in 2004-2006 and they're still all in office because the whole project is frozen in time. Anyone left in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, etc just wasn't interested in churning out new politicians' names, myself included. Quentin botched it by listing him as having been born in Seville, Aragon. I split the difference by choosing a town in Aragon's Murcia region as close as possible to the border with Andalusia. When I looked up the town on Wikipedia, it mentioned that there was an English expat community there as a result of the Napoleonic Wars. I thought to myself, "yeah, that feels right, let's reference that," so on top of trying to square why an Murciano man has a Basque surname, I threw in him having some English ancestry as well, again for flavor. What did you have in mind for him as a pope? Did you want him to be born in Seville, and thus castellano, or from Murcia and thus aragonés?

Unfortunately, the man you had in mind as his replacement from Baltimore had accusations of child abuse come out in the past year or two. I personally would not be comfortable making him a doppelgänger (I think this goes without saying), but the idea of an African American man from an English-speaking family moving to Ter Mair to become a great priest would be great for IB. I just would chose a completely different name to not even remotely mention the real person he's loosely based off. That's the breaks of using real life people to make fake ones.

This new pope I'll leave alone. I want to see your ideas up there, not mine. What Quentin did 14 years ago was not great. On top of that, the Christian West is not something I know about. I botched the shit out of the Protestantism page. In fact, before I ragequit for 2-3 months, I was ready to give it a complete rewrite. Good luck with the quarantine. I hope you, your wife, and your son are doing alright. I'm supposed to start a new job in L.A. and start my life over out Californie-way, but I don't think the mid/late May startdate that they gave me can hold now that we're in the prelude to armageddon. I just want this global pandemic to be over. Misterxeight 19:32, 18 March 2020 (PDT)

I no longer recall any details of what I had planned, so won't presume to meddle any further! Though I had rather hoped that an Eastern pope would serve as a bridge, not only to the Catholic East, but more importantly the Orthodox East. We in the West need our Orthodox brothers; and, you may not agree, but I dare say the East needs their Catholic brothers the same. It's a wound within a family that's gone on far too long. Brothers should stand united, side by side, not at each other's throats. Elemtilas 12:54, 20 May 2020 (PDT)

Oregonian English

Hello Padraic,

I'm currently trying to expand the article on Oregon, and as part of that I'm trying to write in Oregonian English. However, I'm not sure how to write a silent "e". Would you be willing to help me? --Gwaell 07:36, 7 May 2020 (PDT)

I'm afraid I don't have any notes on this anymore, though I appreciate you taking it on! As for silent e, I had a look at the alphabet, and I find ъ and ь are both used for that letter. Elemtilas 12:33, 20 May 2020 (PDT)