Capto Iugulum

[Muurya]

OOC: Thanks! Some of the stats are still weird, but that clears up a lot of it.

 

[TerrisH]

hmm.. IDEEAA!
EQ, would you permit me to take over the "Swiss Free State"? If you will, I'll send you a quick PM regarding an unusual stance I want to take with them to see if it will fit before I actually take over.

 

[Luckymoose]

TO: Colombia
FROM: Brazil

Now that democracy has been returned Brazil will aid you in constructing a modern defensive fleet and military.

 

[Quisani]

The March of Mankind
Rudyard Kipling

For many a lifetime I've watched, with obsessive scrutiny and care,
Man's only endless joy and pleasure, their cross alone to bear.
It is The March of Mankind; that One True Progress that all men own,
A testament to their trudging, across endless muck, sand, and stone.


On occasion I have seen fit, when Their beat was strong,
To leave my place of watching, to go and march along,
When the air was full of Hope as these men charged in stride,
When Their fife and drum were full of Uplift, Vision and Pride.


All too soon, however, the beat they made would falter,
I would regain my senses as soon as Their course would alter.
Their blazing Progress gone, Their Hope all but spent,
They would begin anew Their labored March with a determination Hellbent.


Amongst themselves They would elect using various tests,
Heroes shrewd and clever, the brightest and the best.
They led as gods and Prophets, a guiding light for Man,
To lead the March of Their endeavors, with their secret Plans.


These Rulers, Priests and Merchants, These Populists and Elite,
Would stride among the others, the chaff among the wheat.
The Greener Grass was just beyond, so these Schemers would say,
Yet a weed is but a hopeful flower, and gardens don't grow in a day.


All of those who would follow, these Leaders who made the Rules,
Had no means to speak out, when they were used as tools.
They were told that all men were Equal, that there was nothing left as Sacred,
They were told they had Free Will, and that Love was brother to Hatred.


The idea of Right and Wrong was said, to be a state of mind.
With reeducation the only need, for those with stones to grind.
But tolerance can't make amends, for there are no real wrongs to right,
With all love and no justice, resentment soon becomes a blight.


It is said that tommorrow will be very much like the past.
Some say we will begin anew, yet the die has long since been cast.
To die, man must live, and to live, one must die,
Whatever course Man takes, that course must go awry


And so they've follow blindly, and astray they have been led,
With only facts and claims to lead them, since Virtue and God are dead.
They've always circled Eden, Paradise too good to be True,
Instead of admitting Fault, they march their endless queue .


As a man denies his heart, so shall he be,
The lame must carry those who walk, the blind lead those who see.
This is the March that never ends, History's endless song,
And as you hear these words, Mankind marches on.

 

[Bair_the_Normal]

Now that I've gotten every RL thing over with, I am returning as Serbia.

 

[Jehoshua]

Papal Homily on the Feast of the Divine Mercy, 1910 AD.


"The Dictatorship of Relativism"​

-

At this hour of great responsibility, we hear with special consideration what the Lord says to us in his own words. From the three readings I would like to examine just a few passages which concern us directly at this time.

The first reading gives us a prophetic depiction of the person of the Messiah – a depiction which takes all its meaning from the moment Jesus reads the text in the synagogue in Nazareth, when he says: “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4,21). At the core of the prophetic text we find a word which seems contradictory, at least at first sight. The Messiah, speaking of himself, says that he was sent “To announce a year of favor from the Lord and a day of vindication by our God” (Is 61,2). We hear with joy the news of a year of favor: divine mercy puts a limit on evil – the Holy Father told us. Jesus Christ is divine mercy in person: encountering Christ means encountering the mercy of God. Christ’s mandate has become our mandate through priestly anointing. We are called to proclaim – not only with our words, but with our lives, and through the valuable signs of the sacraments, the “year of favor from the Lord”. But what does the prophet Isaiah mean when he announces the “day of vindication by our God”? In Nazareth, Jesus did not pronounce these words in his reading of the prophet’s text – Jesus concluded by announcing the year of favor. Was this, perhaps, the reason for the scandal which took place after his sermon? We do not know. In any case, the Lord gave a genuine commentary on these words by being put to death on the cross. Saint Peter says: “He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross” (1 Pe 2,24). And Saint Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians: “Christ ransomed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree’, that the blessing of Abraham might be extended to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Gal 3, 13s).

The mercy of Christ is not a cheap grace; it does not presume a trivialization of evil. Christ carries in his body and on his soul all the weight of evil, and all its destructive force. He burns and transforms evil through suffering, in the fire of his suffering love. The day of vindication and the year of favor meet in the paschal mystery, in Christ died and risen. This is the vindication of God: he himself, in the person of the Son, suffers for us. The more we are touched by the mercy of the Lord, the more we draw closer in solidarity with his suffering – and become willing to bear in our flesh “what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ” (Col 1, 24).

In the second reading, the letter to the Ephesians, we see basically three aspects: first, the ministries and charisms in the Church, as gifts of the Lord risen and ascended into heaven. Then there is the maturing of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, as a condition and essence of unity in the body of Christ. Finally, there is the common participation in the growth of the body of Christ - of the transformation of the world into communion with the Lord.

Let us dwell on only two points. The first is the journey towards “the maturity of Christ” as it is said. More precisely, according to the Greek text, we should speak of the “measure of the fullness of Christ”, to which we are called to reach in order to be true adults in the faith. We should not remain infants in faith, in a state of minority. And what does it mean to be an infant in faith? Saint Paul answers: it means “tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery” (Eph 4, 14). This description is very relevant today!

How many winds of doctrine we have known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking… The small boat of thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves – thrown from one extreme to the other: from liberalism to socialism, even to the pernicious ideology of proletarianism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism, and so forth. Every day new sects are created and what Saint Paul says about human trickery comes true, it with cunning tries to draw men into into error (cf Eph 4, 14).Thus we see in the current day that having a clear faith, based on the Creed of the Church, is often labeled today as fundamentalism. Defense of the teachings of Christ and opposition to the shifting ways of the world and the tide of godlessness labelled a "pursuit for power". Firm religion is even labelled as contrary to the dignity of man! God himself in many quarters is rejected by those who would live their lives as if He did not exist! In the modern age, relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and “swept along by every wind of teaching”, increasingly looks like the only attitude acceptable to today’s standards be they liberal or proletarian and firm adherance to truth, to a firm faith, is increasingly becoming counter cultural, the faithful a creative minority.

Indeed this tendency to relativism is increasingly apparent. A notable proletarian scholar recently argued, when one delves behind the directives he espoused, that one must make man himself the arbiter of righteousness, and conform the divine religion to the ideals of proletarian ideology. This relativism in truth attacks the virtue of genuine religion, for as Christ our saviour says "I am the way the truth and the life, there is no other way to the father except through me". In saying this Christ tells us that all mankind is compelled by the reality of the God, of Christ, to seek truth and walk away from darkness in following the way this truth has laid out for us. Yet the liberals and proletarians argue that one should be free to "pick and choose" his own faith, that each is as equal as another so long as it does not conflcit with this or that manmade ideology. By the proliferation of this mentality the very truth of God has in many places become subordinated to the whims of man! God in the minds of many has been made a human construct with the reality of the divine simply reduced to an antiquarian belief, tolerated and privatised, replaced in mans minds and hearts, in the way they live their lives by the errors of manmade ideologies. By the emptiness that is created when man seeks to fill the void left by their rejection of God. Relativism places man above God, and sets humanity on the road to impiety, immorality and even atheism. It is a relfection of a society that has chosen to justify its own immorality and perversion by shifting its beliefs. The individual in this paradigm, instead of shifting his actions to conform to truth, correcting himself to the greater good, acting in accordance to the natural law written by God in his creation has instead chosen to ignore the reality and leave itself to decay. Men, in many quarters have chosen to justify themselves TO themselves, instead of following faithfully the path laid out for them by their creator.

The world is thus moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires. Where the will of the majority becomes superior to the liberty of the few, where the natural law as I recently spoke about becomes clouded as men delude themselves in their concrete bunker of ignorance. Proletarianism is but the most dangerous and banal manifestation of this relativism in that the desire for the liberty God grants man is disordered and perverted to exhalt "the worker" over the totality of society and the human family, man over God, ones own desires over the pursuit of truth and over the law of God.

However in the face of these tendencies, we as christians have a different goal from those who live in darkness: the Son of God, true man. He is the measure of true humanism. Being an “Adult” means having a faith which does not follow the waves of today’s fashions or the latest novelties. A faith which is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ is adult and mature. It is this friendship which opens us up to all that is good and gives us the knowledge to judge true from false, and deceit from truth. We must become mature in this adult faith. It is this faith – only faith – that unity between men is created manifesting in the form in love. For it is only in the Church, in total fidelity to the way of Christ who is the only way to salvation (as compared to the utopian fantasies of certain ideologies) that humanity can uplift itself beyond the egotism, self-centredness and sin that so afflicts it, and enter into the fullness of its true humanity as intended by its creator and find, through Christ Jesus and His Church the way to true salvation, both in this life and in the next.

~ Pope Paul VI.

 

[Mickzter97]

@mickzter
Sky/light blue

You've lost some land to about 5 different places if it matters.

@mickzter

Proletarist Hungary - Reddish Color

Royalist Hungary - Light Blue

Slovakia - Yellowish

Croatia - Dark Blue

Also

Serbia - Light Grey

Romania - Light Greenish color

Bulgaria - Pink

Thanks!

 

[Muurya]

OOC: Just wanted to let everyone know I'm switching to Persia instead of Peru. I decided I want a bit of a fight with a more old-style government and avoid the hassle of having to sell the King Juan design to everyone (sorry to those I was in negotiations with) to make up the arm and a leg it cost.

 

[EQandcivfanatic]

PROCLAMATIONS OF THE MOST GLORIOUS MODERATOR​

Muurya is officially Persia, not Peru. Therefore any negotiations that had been underway by Peru are invalid and they return to an NPC status. If you were negotiating, please, contact me with what had been done, and I will see if they are good for Peru. Unless of course, we get yet another player switch or new player who takes this particular backwater nation.

TerrisH is the Swiss Free State per request, please direct diplomacy toward him.

Jehoshua, I'm under the impression that you may actually be the Pope, trying to fill the humdrum schedule of his life by NESing. Good speech.


@bestrfcplayer: Welcome aboard, remember for a nation claim to actually matter, you have to send in orders for the next update.

@spryllino: Your new army doctrine has been added to the front page. Sorry for the confusion. As stated, my first and longest break during writing the update came in the middle of your orders with severe writer's block. Hence the problems which have emerged.


To: Franco-Burgundian Confederation
From: Cechy-Morava

We thank you for your recognition, and hope that it is the beginning of a wonderful amicable relationship.

To: Brazil
From: Colombia

We thank our most appreciated allies in their ongoing support for our fine republic.

 

[Mickzter97]

To: Royalist Scum of Hungary
From: Free Proletarists of Hungary

It is pointless to resist. Let the free peoples of Hungary rule the land of which we rule! Your king can live peacefully in our land as a citizen.
Give up already. Your people, the very same as ours, will die for no reason.
Is that what you really want?

 

[EQandcivfanatic]

To: Poletarist Usurpers
From: King Vladislaus IV of Hungary

We will not allow the peoples of Hungary to fall under your tyrannous regime. We will preserve our nation's security and position in Europe through any means we need to. Surrender now and we will only send your leaders into exile.

To: Serbia
From: King Vladislaus IV of Hungary

In exchange for your total support for our cause, until the last bullet is fired, we are willing to cede the territories currently under your occupation officially to your government. We'd also like to recommend a ceasefire with the Croats, as we must all focus on the destruction of the proletarist blight.

 

[m.t.cicero]

From: King Leopold IV of Flanders, Chairman of the League of Continental Nations
To: Cechy-Morava, Swiss Free State

We feel that it is our obligation, recent difficulties within the league notwithstanding, to invite your nations, being free and independent continental European states, to join the League of Continental Nations.


To: The World
CC: League Members
From: Flanders

The difficulties which the League has been faced with in the past year should not be understated. Our losses have crippled the League's already limited ability to act. This League exists on the basis that all member nations will keep faith with the promises they made when they joined, eliminating the need for the League to use diplomatic or military means to enforce its decisions. Russia broke this faith, however, when they refused to submit to the arbitration of the International Court of Justice regarding the Prussian slaughter, and the member nations of the League lack the military power and will to stand against, let alone fight, Russia.

Until the day comes that nations decide to put the interests of Europe before their own, the League cannot effectively work exactly as it was originally intended to. Flanders also must however bear some of the responsibility ourselves, as the members of the League chose us to be its Chair, trusting that we could lead Europe to perpetual peace. We have failed in this endeavor, and our idealistic view that the League could see the scourge of war banished forever from Europe has been proven incorrect. We apologize for our indecisive leadership, in particular with respect to the fact that Russia should have been immediately suspended by us as it had violated Article IV of the League, which reads that "The nations that join this League shall agree to...uphold certain basic humanitarian principles." Russia not only failed to uphold basic humanitarian principles, but put those principles to the sword along with countless Prussians.

We will do our best to rebuild the reputation of this League, and hope that someday it might be able to live up to its promises. For now, the League will continue to act as a forum in which members can peacefully and fairly resolve disputes. Know that so long as Flanders leads the League we will never again hesitate to act when the innocent are massacred.

 

[Mickzter97]

To: Royalists
From: Free Proletarists of Hungary

We are the peoples of Hungary. We represent freedom. We shall unite Hungary under one banner and our people will be free.

To: Serbia
From: Free Proletarists of Hungary

Do not listen to that excuse of a King. He is ruthless and untrustworthy. Join the free people of Hungary so that there is an ever lasting peace in the Balkans.

To: Bulgaria
From: Free Proletarists of Hungary

It would be of best interests to every party if you proclaim who is your enemy and friend.

 

[EQandcivfanatic]

To: Flanders and the League of Continental Nations
From: Cechy-Morava

We unfortunately must decline to join the League until the rest of the German Economic League returns as well.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

To: Flanders
From: Vinland

We applaud your goals for the League. Do not let your idealism fade.

 

[TheLastJacobite]

To Hungary
From Russia

Due to your current battle against the Proletarist scum that attempt to usurp your nation, we hereby waive the final payments of reparations from the Great War. Any and all aid we can offer you in your struggle is at your disposal

 

[EQandcivfanatic]

Well, I'm working on a more comprehensive rating of the world and power, but here's the quick "Great 8" in all related categories.

Great 8 Navies

1. Netherlands
2. Brazil
3. United States of America
4. Japan
5. Spain
6. Sardinia
7. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
8. Scandinavia

Great 8 Armies

1. Russia
2. Franco-Burgundian Confederation
3. Japan
4. Spain
5. China
6. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
7. Austria
8. Brandenburg

Great 8 Economies

1. Russia
2. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
3. Japan
4. United States of America
5. Franco-Burgundian Confederation
6. Spain
7. Scandinavia
8. Italy

The Great Eight Overall

1. Russia
2. Franco-Burgundian Confederation
3. Japan
4. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
5. United States of America
6. Spain
7. Scandinavia
8. Brandenburg

 

[Mickzter97]

@TLJ - Aid to Royalists or Proletarists?

 

[ZeletDude]

Still the best navy!

 

[Circuit]

OOC: How is it that I have the third best navy when the only time I invested in it at all was in the Great War? Somehow the navy insists on being better than the army.

And stupid rebels. Looks like I'm headed for Round 2.