Common Names: The Confederacy, The Shawnee
Capital: Cuyahoga
Demonym: Shawnee
Languages
Official/National: Algonquin
Recognized/Regional: Sioux, Catawban, Iroquois, English, French
Ethnic Groups
Shawnee, Illinois, Miami, Wyandot, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Sauk, Fox, Winnebago, Erie, Algonquin, Huron, Menominee, Tionontati, Chippewa (or Ojibwa), Ottawa, English, French

Government: Tribal monarchy
Head of State: Great Chief
Head of Government: High Elder
Legislature: Elder Council

January 4, 1780

John Montagu paciently observed the waving arms of Europe and Asia while the ship was approaching to the coast. As his own father did fifty years ago, he was about to meet the exotic realms of the Ottoman Empire - although in a less enjoyable setting, as he was doing so representing the Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth.

His political career, supported by the influence of his family (as his father was a member of the Commonwealth Council, retiring only in 1776) seemed ascending, elected to the General Assembly for first time at age 26, but it rather became stagnant after the death of Lord Protector Henry Fox, and specially since Lord Protector August FitzRoy appointed General William John Kerr as Lieutenant-governor of the Region of London - a position Montagu himself was rumoured as main candidate.

As bored as disappointed, Montagu did not hesitate when he was proposed to accept leading a delegation to the Ottoman Empire, although it was not clear which could be expected of that declining empire, and how this travel was supposed to improve his own personal interests.

Paris, Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth | January 10, 1780


Lord Protector August FitzRoy, the Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth head of state, had spent the new year's eve and the coming days in his Summer house in Paris, a rather small but comfy palace of Late Baroque style. August was randomly walking in one large room which served as one of his official offices. There were several piles of papers and documents on his table, and several maps -include two big maps of the Indian continent, and a third of Northern Africa- were hanged on the wall.

FitzRoy's political career was certainly as constant as surprising. After being a young member in both in the East England assembly and the Commonwealth General Assembly, he was appointed Lieutenant-governor of East England at age 33. FitzRoy was elected to the Commonwealth Council in the early 1770s, becoming a close ally of both William Pitt and Henry Fox. After the death of the former, in the middle of a complicated international crisis, FitzRoy was able to secure his election as 12th Lord Protector of the Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth in 1778.

Only several months after being inaugurated as Lord Protector, FitzRoy was forced to negotiate and sign the Peace of Dax, which resulted in the end of the American War and the loss and independence of the Northern American colonies. Although nobody could really blame him personally, FitzRoy did not aim to be remembered as the Lord Protector who was forced to accept the loss of the wealthiest and more important of the Commonwealth colonies to the date. Of course, he had still other, and more pleasant, entertainments, but ideas about how to recover and increase the prestige of the Commonwealth kept coming to his mind, without much success or conviction so far.

"Your Honorable Excellency", one of the servants announced the Lord Protector, "Monsieur de Forbonnais arrived five minutes ago".

"Alright...I see", FitzRoy said without much conviction. "Tell him to come him immediately".

François Duverger de Forbonnais climbed the stairs slowly. Forbonnais had been Inspector-General of the Parisian House of Commerce for twenty years. A year ago, he was appointed by the Commonwealth Council as chairman of a commission to determine the situation of the Commonwealth's financial situation and, more importantly, to propose economic and financial reforms for the consideration of the Commonwealth Council. His assistant Arthur was following him, who was carrying two huge folders.

"As I promise you, Your Honorable Excellency Lord Protector", François Duverger said, "I bring you our 270-page report that our commission has prepared...".

"Did you say 270...?", the Lord Protector asked. "Do you pretend that I have enough time to read that?".

"Well", François Duverger replied, "I thought it could be helpful that you are able to check it, not necessarily in detail of course, as it includes quite technical date, just before we introduce our report to the Council of State the next month".

"Alright", the Lord Protector said, "I will try to read at least the introduction and the conclusion. Could you give me an advance? Did you find complicated to reach an agreement?".

"The work of the commission wasn't easy, Your Honorable Excellency, but I am proud of our job", François Duverger answered. "The financial situation is certainly dreary, and we have propose urgent reforms. While I wouldn't say that the situation is desperate, it is undeniable that the costs of the war were great, we were forced to increase our debts, and it is complicated that we will be able to balance our finances immediately. Losing the northern colonies has also reduced considerably the financial resources of the state. But I am confident that, with our reforms, we will be able to reverse the situation".

"So you are saying we are not bankrupt", the Lord Protector said without much interest.

"Fortunately we are not that bad...although the situation is serious enough", François Duverger answered. "It is difficult to make realistic analysis, as the information we obtained is not as precise as we would like. However, it is safe to say that the Atlantic trade is slowly recovering, Your Honorable Excellency, and although it is too early too say, production in the northern colonies is slowly recovering as well, with a reduction of the prices in cotton. Our other northern territories, sadly, they don't contribute much to the treasury, rather the contrary, and our other possessions, such as Jamaica and the Barbudan archipelago, mostly based on sugar are only slightly profitable. To balance such external situation, it will be required to do some serious reforms at home. For example, we have observed that differences in taxes between our provinces is creating serious problems for trade and industrial production. This had some sense in the past...But it is required a reform on this if we want to improve the economy".

"You say that as if it was easy to do", the Lord Protector replied. "It's alright, let's hope all this work it out sooner than expected. We haven't that much time".

The United Kingdom Of the Tjurunga Peoples





Official name: The United Kingdom Of the Tjurunga Peoples
Capital: Mutitjulu Territory
Demonym: Tjurungan [CHU-roon’gun]
Languages: Wati languages (primarily Pitjantjatjara, also Antakarinya, Martu Wangka, Luritja, Yankunytjatjara)
Ethnic Groups: Anangu, Walpiri, Arunta

Government: Absolute monarchy
Head of State: Great Chief
Head of Government: Great Chief
Established: unified in 1573 CE

Official name: Poblacht Chónaidhme na hÉireann agus na hAlban (Confederated Republic of Ireland and Scotland)
Capital: Belfast
Demonym: Éireannacha (Irish) Albanach (Scots)
Languages: Gaelic, English
Ethnic Groups: Irish, Scottish, Norman, Welsh, others

Government: Confederated Republic
Head of State: Uachtarán na Poblacht (President of the Republic) Ágastas Ó Dorcháin
Head of Government: Taoiseach
Legislature: Council of the Clans (113 seats)
Established: 1639

Provinces:

Eire

Ulster (Northern)
Ruling Clan: Ui Connall

Meath (Eastern Middle)
Ruling Clan: O'Neill

Leinster (South Eastern)
Ruling Clan: Ui Dunlainge

Connacht (Western)
Ruling Clan: Burke

Munster (Southern)
Ruling Clan: Ui Liathain

Alba

Hebrides & Skye (North West)
Ruling Clan: MacLeod

Highland (North)
Ruling Clan: MacKenzie

Aberdeenshire (East)
Ruling Clan: Gordon

Tayside (North Central)
Ruling Clan: Ruthven

Argyll (West)
Ruling Clan: Campbell

Central
Ruling Clan: Stewart

Ayrshire & Galloway (South)
Ruling Clan: Dunbar

Brendanland Colonies (North America)
Ruling Clan: N/A (Republic Governorship)

Afraic Colonies (South Western Africa)
Ruling Clan: N/A (Republic Governorship)

Imeall an Domhain Colonies (Central America)
Ruling Clan: N/A (Republic Governorship)

Doiminice & Barbado (Western Caribbean)
Ruling Clan: N/A (Republic Governorship)

Istanbul, The Ottoman Empire
April 20, 1780

Sultan Selim III, the grand emperor of the Ottoman people and leader of Islam, was a busy man. He had ascended to the throne only four years ago, and already he had the empire on its collective toes with his talk of reforms which angered the clerics and various janisaries entities across the large nation.

Such a large nation required a degree of laissez-faire in terms of the mundane governing of the little people. This was something previous Ottoman emperors knew and the empire flourished. This approach was starting to slow the empire down in recent decades however. The defeat of the Ottomans by the Austrians, Venetians, and Russians in the early to mid eighteenth century were indicative of the Ottoman failures, not just in military doctrine and organization, but in society, technology, and economy. Simply put, the Ottomans, once considered the most influential state in the continent, were now being left behind. 

The Sultan's response? To change the empire from a fundamental level. The rest of Europe held the key to an Ottoman resurgence. Their armies were better equipped, better organized, and better led than that of the Ottomans. Their economies were flourishing on the backs of foreign adventures. With the advent of European colonies in asia, the Ottoman control of the flow of spice and the silk road was beginning to wane. In technology, the Ottomans were at least 25 years behind their rivals, and it showed in conflicts.

Change would not be easy however. A state as old as the Ottomans carried powerful factions. The religious elite resented any change to the status quo, and adopting infidel technologies and economic principles carried heavy consequences. The janissaries would hardly take well to reorganization of the Ottoman military, and at nearly 150,000 strong, they were not a force to be crossed lightly. Furthermore, all of this change was expensive, and while the Ottomans were not poor by any means, the wealth required to carry out what the Sultan desired was immense and would put pressures on the coffers of the empire. Even then, hungry rivals were seemingly on all sides. While the Austrians, the Ottomans age old enemy, were dispatched, it seems as though infidels have sprouted like weeds to take their place. The Russian Tsarina was not satisfied with just Crimea, and could move further south to assert authority over the Balkans. Closer to home, the Greeks, having secured a tenuous independence with Venetian assistance, are eyeing their former empire. It is not certain how the Byzantine pretenders survived all these years, but their seemingly zombified return was not something to ignore.

Still, the Sultan was prepared to drag the empire kicking and screaming into the modern era, even if it required great sacrifice.

Archived Forums and You!
The Zetaboards conversion to Tapatalk

Hey kids! I'm back. So are you. Sport shoes ready?

Skip to the bottom part labeled "TL,DR" if you can't be arsed. For everyone else, read on.

Today we're going to talk about the impending migration Zetaboards is taking to Tapatalk software. Luckily our community is not hosted on Zetaboards, so the migration will not have any effect on our current operations. However, but our two archived community forums, Oracia (Caprecian Continents) and Eternity on Zetaboards obviously are hosted under Zetaboards by Zaythus Networks, and this change will affect them. Some of you might not care, but I have noticed that posts have been made on the old forum as recently as 6 months ago, and several people still use, link to, and reference the old threads for MTRP stuff, because copy-pasting everything to the current forum would be silly when it's all sitting there for us, right?

Well, I thought that too, until the recently.


The Problem!

The developer of Zetaboards made an announcement a month ago, notifying Zetaboards users of the migration. Not much info was given, and it is almost entirely the same info that was given to forum admins via email. I will quote the entire announcement below: