Regional Public Radio

[studentloandebt]

A parody of the real news group, National Public Radio, Regional Public Radio (RPR) is a Ministry of Role-Play news group that publishes In-Character news about our RP World. It can be through news reports, interviews, and other ways that help better flush out the modern lore of our world.

[studentloandebt]

Originally published on May 4th, 2019

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I'm Mindy Soccerparty, this is RPR.

Rise of Witchcraft

There is magic in the air, or so it would feel to many. Around the world there has been a sudden surge in interest in all things magic, from witchcraft to charms and even a rise in the candle industry. People of all ages have begun taking an interest. Online communities and forums have experienced a sudden influx of discussion of witchcraft and seeing a rise in the formation of online covens made of people from many different countries. In this rise in the dark arts comes a rise in profits as well. The Wilting Rose, a shop that sells charms, herbs, idols, and other items dealing with witchcraft, became the first of it's kind to open in the DSA Capital last week, being met with a good number of customers each day. Cities around the world are also seeing an influx of sales in magic shops as well as many new openings of shops dealing in witchcraft. Local pagan groups have also starting seeing a rise in membership. More and more people are converting away from other religions and towards that of worshiping nature. Many attribute this to the rise in witchcraft interest and welcome the new members.
However, while there has been an increase interest in magic, there has also been an increase backlash from religious leaders. The Jeb!ian Church of the DSA Capital has been very vocal about their opposition to the opening of the Wilting Rose, with church goers hearing sermons on the dangers of falling away from Jeb!'s light.

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Crashing of Swords

The region previously known as Ozhonistan is currently one of the leading areas of Neo-Luddite activity in the DSA. Local gangs kidnap and scrap A.I. civilians for cash while leaders there attempt to create the first A.I.-Free state in the DSA. However, local A.I. civilians have starting fighting back. A group known as the Binary Swords has become the main A.I. gang to clash with Neo-Ludd gangs in the area, with other gangs scattered across the land also engaging in violence against the Neo-Ludd gangs. A recent attack on a Binary Sword run A.I. neighborhood in the capital city of Johanalbal resulted in a mass power outage, leading to the death of 9 A.I. civilians. The Binary Sword gang, in retaliation, recently released a video of the execution of 4 members of the Smokey Street Gang, one of the main Neo-Ludd gangs in the city. With tensions continually rising in the fallen state, the rest of the world is left guessing as to what gang will be next to control the city.

[studentloandebt]

Originally published on May 19th, 2019

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Attack on DSA Capital Sapient Center



Earlier this week, an attack was conducted on the DSA Capital Sapience Center on 9th Street. A man entered the building with an automatic weapon and assaulted workers and others in the building. Police were able to apprehend the man soon after. Inside the attacker's vehicle were found to be Neo-Luddite pamphlets as well as an A.I. hand that was kept in the glove box. The attack left 14 wounded and 3 dead, a 10ian Penguin, an Unusian Lynx, and a Sapience Center human worker. Currently the building's outside has been turned into a memorial with flowers and words of sorrow decorating the walls and parking lot of the building. The attacker is currently in custody by Capital Police.



The Sapience Center was opened in 1997 to offer shelter, supplies, counseling, and legal representation to Non-Human Sapients (NHS) in need of assistance. The Capital Sapience Center became a major center for corrupted A.I. in the mid-2000s when the Y2K3 virus hit the DSA as well as assisted in petitioning the governments of the world to provide funding on the study of the vrius.

[studentloandebt]

The contents of this article have been RetConned.


Originally published on September 29th, 2019

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I'm Mindy Soccerparty. This is RPR.

It's been exactly one month since the world found out about the presence and use of chemical weapons in the Guthrie Desert in Iskar. Popular cryptozoologist, Dr. Esteban Julio Ricardo Montoyo de la Rosario Ramirez, first reported this to the world during an expedition to the desert in search of a local folklore creature, only to find that the creature was actually white phosphorus; a deadly chemical weapon that is illegal under international law. Despite the knowledge of this, the world was quiet about the war crimes being committed in Iskar. Here's Davey Yellowe with more to the story.

Davey Yellowe: It wouldn't be for another two weeks until there was even any mention of these attacks in global conversation when the Iskarian Intracontinental Union attempted to have Dr. Esteban be their mascot. Dr. Esteban rejected becoming their mascot for the IIU not mentioning the Guthrie Desert Attacks at all after his report. Anger arose against the IIU for what was deemed as "hypocrisy" due to the regional organization staging a mass exodus from DSAC for not responding to war crimes while at the same time the IIU was being completely silent about these heinous crimes occurring on the continent they represent.

Upon Dr. Esteban rejection on Growlr of being the IIU mascot, Cyara i’Yasa-Kordani, the public speaker of the IIU, responded that she had not heard of the attacks due to attempts to counter forest fires in the USS. Growlr users pointed out how the CDAC were able to send aide to and assist the nation of Venovica while the nation was being hit by Hurricane Daniel but had not mentioned the Guthrie Desert attacks at all.

Cyara responded on Growler by saying "I have now integrated ALL POSSIBLE knowledge about this into my brains to do something about it. So ok, brb, give me like a couple of days.", followed by another growl criticizing the nation of Slotheria for not responding to the attacks after being told by Jason the Trans Sloth about it through texts. This was 18 days ago and Cyara has been announcing to the world everything but the desert attacks, from carrots to cantaloupes and even sending more aide to Venovica and the nation of Cessnia.

Meanwhile, the rest of the IIU has remained silent on the issue. No other nations have responded to nor mentioned the attacks. The IIU has not made public if they have even met to discuss this issue nor released any statement on the matter. Growlr users have expressed anger over this, including Adam Warolic, a leading voice in the Neo-Luddite Movement, who sees the IIU as an A.I. supremacy group and says that humans "have to look out for our own kind and go in to help our brothers", indicating that there may be Neo-Luddite groups stepping in to combat whomever is using white phosphorus bombs on civilians. This is Davey Yellowe, RPR News.

Mindy Soccerparty: Coming up, a closer look at reports that residents in the former state of West Bengalis can hear the sound of police sirens in the Duboi Mountains and the surprising source of the sound.

[studentloandebt]

Originally published on October 19th, 2019

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Meet The Pop Star Spider



A Frimuniran biologist who specializes in spiders — and who likes pop music — has discovered a new spider species and named it after Syvian pop singer Linveu; Cantatiakus Linveus



“This is the kind of music I like and I usually listen to,” says Sharon Hernez, a researcher at the Kropotkap Jungle biological research center, Kropotkap Outpost. She has named more than 50 new spider species.



She specializes in spider taxonomy and classifies spider specimens collected in the field or held at research institutions or museums. "I was devastated by the death of Linveu," Hernez said. "His music had inspired so many around the world and I seek to honor him through this. The Cantatiakus Linveus's vibrant colors reminds one of the images fans felt in their mind when hearing Linveu's music and it just felt perfect to name this species after him."



Naming spiders species is ruled by an international code of nomenclature, but part of the name is left to researchers' creativity. Hernez says she likes researching and finding interesting names.

(OOC: this story is just a rip of this actual article)

[studentloandebt]

The contents of this article have been RetConned.

Originally published on October 26th, 2019

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Guthrie Desert Migrant Crisis and Neo-Luddite Response

I'm Mindy Soccerparty, this is RPR

The situation in the Guthrie Desert continues on as more deadly attacks against civilians occur. According to the IIU, the groups carrying out the attacks are fundamentalist Violetists. These groups are using white phosphorous on the civilian population and it is only getting worse. With what seems like little help from the international community, many people from the region have begun to emigrant to other places to avoid further attacks. These refugees have gone in all directions away from the region, from the hotter south of the Guthrie Desert to the shores of Jotun Lake as well as approaching nations like the CDAC, Joseon, and USS.

Already over 7,000 refugees have set up camp in the western Iskar mountain range on their way to other nations. All of the refugees who spoke for this story used partial or false names to protect against possible retaliation. Refugee Jaye Munstip says he lost four family members when the terrorist groups attacked his town. When asked what the refugees need now, he said international help.

"If God allows it, we need protection. We feel alone in the world and need help from the outside. We need aide to leave the area and we need forces to fight the monsters. Where is the help?" he says.

Outside another tent of the camp, Umna Nayek, a woman from the region says many other families are hiding in the mountains like her, hoping for a chance to cross to Ratateague and the West Coast. She taps a reporter on the shoulder and asks if she will be heard in the DSA Capital.

"We are begging you to just stop this group. They are killing us; the people are forced to hide or go to another land. They don't understand anything but killing. We don't want to be refugees; we want to go home. So please, just stop them," she says.

The IIU responded to the crisis at the end of September with a report of an investigation, but have not published any reports since. However, the IIU are not the only people coming into the area. Here's Davey Yellowe with more to the story.

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As if it was any surprise that the A.I. headed IIU wouldn't even mention the attacks on humans in the Guthrie desert. If the A.I. elite won't step up, clearly us humans have to look out for our own kind and go in to help our brothers

This was the growl that Adam Warolic sent about a month ago. Warolic is a major figure in the Neo-Luddite movement, a movement that opposes A.I. sapients and transhumanism. Members of the movement are found around the world and have attacked many A.I. over the years in the name of "Organic Rights". Neo-Ludds have begun voicing their thoughts on the Guthrie Desert Crisis, blaming the IIU, which they see as an A.I. supremacy group, for the escalation of the crisis and death of humans in the area.

Last month, Neo-Luds began organizing into groups where people volunteer to go and fight the Violetist groups in the area. Some of those groups include the Save Our Future Children Expedition (S.O.F.C.E.), Sons of Organarchy (S.O.), and the People's Democratic Resistance (P.D.R.), along with smaller groups. Current numbers of volunteers are in the thousands and have begun heading out to the region. Difficulty comes in traveling to the isolated region, with many having different means of getting there. Some are traveling by air, some even by land. However, the most popular means of getting to the region is by sailing up the Saint James River by boat.

Groups of people fly into La Pays De Soliel and FBK and travel to the mouth of the river, where camps have been established outside of towns in the area. The amount of people traveling through the area has also brought a lot of commerce flowing through the towns with people buying supplies, eating at local diners and restaurants, and staying at lodgings. Dean Gerald, a local shop owner, has expressed excitement from this.

"We sometimes get groups of people heading through here, but now my shop is packed almost everyday."

However, not all residents of the area are as thrilled as he is. With the increase in people traveling through, there also comes an increase in destructive behavior. Camps amass large piles of trash that are left for the residents to clean. Bar fights are occurring in larger numbers. Property is vandalized as one group leaves and another enters the towns. There is also an ideological conflict as well, with residents not supporting the reasons for why the groups are passing through.

"It would be fine if they were just helping to stop the terrorist groups, but these people are just as bad, many of them touting fascist ideology" says Marie Gartedge, a local hair dresser who sees this as a bad time for her community. "Some of them will come into my shop and I will refuse to serve them. I've been cursed at, shouted at, had racist remarks made at me, and I've even had my shop's windows be smashed in. I've had to closed down some days out of fear that I'll be attacked again.

Similar incidents have occurred further along the river, with groups stopping at many towns and villages settled along the river. Volunteers of these groups are continuing to flow up river to try and stop the fundamentalists and will likely not stop soon. From RPR news, I'm Davey Yellowe.

[studentloandebt]

Originally Published on November 4th, 2019

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Fresh Bear: "Of Flesh And Steel"


With Regional Public Radio, I’m Larry Groß, this is Fresh Bear. I’m big, I’m hairy, and I just took a shower, so I’m a fresh bear. On with the show.

Our guest today, journalist Dr. Francesca Mariana Consuela Gonzalez Damasco Garcia Ramón Lucia Gwenburg Gomez, has written a detailed firsthand account of the fall of Ozhonistan, rise of gangs, dominance of Neo-Luddism, and the destruction of Johanalbal. The series of events has cost the lives of thousands of people.

Gomez writes about the effects that gang violence and control has had on civilians. Dr. Francesca is a contributing writer at The Blossom newspaper. Her reporting on the Johanalbal Crisis earned her a Reporters Award. She is here to talk about her new book, "Of Flesh and Steel; Johanalbal's Fall and the Rise of Neo-Luddism"

Dr. Francesca, welcome to Fresh Bear.

Dr. Francesca: Thank you for having me.

Groß: Now, your book focuses on why Ozhonistan fell, the population's reaction and attempts at self governance, and the violence that erupts from it. But for many years before that, the nation's populace had suffered a lot under the government regime. Just give us a quick sense of what the civilians in Ozhonistan had gone through in all those years before the government collapsed.

Dr. Francesca: Too much industry and deaths

Groß: Alright, I get that I said "quick", but could you elaborate on that?

Dr. Francesca: Yeah. Ozhonistan was a nation that was underdeveloped, but developing rapidly. The mineral mining there grew tremendously fast and brought in a sudden influx of both income and foreign investors. However, most of this money didn't go to the people. A lot of it was either kept in the hands of the pop-up foreign business owners or to the royals that looked the other way in the face of corporate disintegrity. Income inequality became widespread, with old and new money having most of the power. Some were able to get by, but a lot didn't have the means to have an easy life. The mines were the worst place; bad safety conditions, long hours, sometimes going weeks in the mine without being able to go home. Many people would be injured or die in there. People soon started asking and petitioning the government to install safety regulations on the mines and for help to alleviate the poor. However, the government was slow, possibly on purpose, to implement effective changes.

In face of this, some workers began going on strikes, demanding better conditions and shorter work days. Initially, the businesses would just fire workers, but the strikes were becoming more frequent and harder to ignore through mass firing. This is when violence first began to break out, with business leaders hiring private groups to quash strikes and protests. This would usually be espionage on the workers to find the leaders and have them dealt with, legally or illegally. Sometimes it would come as private security groups that would be stationed in the workplace to prevent any strikes or protests as they began. Intimidation tactics were the main way they addressed this.

One particularly well known incident revolving around this was what is now called the Battle of Old Rise Mining Company. Old Rise Mining Company had hired a private group to look over the workers to prevent strikes. One form of striking that had recently taken off was when miners would either slow down or stop working, and the company was legally allowed to use force to make them continue working. An incident occurred where a miner was fatigued from days of working and could barely keep going. One of the guards saw this as a strike and tried to make him work faster. Eventually the guard started beating the man with a club, breaking multiple bones in him. It would end up that the miner would die. One of the others miners ran up, tackled the guard, and started attacking him. This grew with more guards and more miners fighting. Eventually it became a full on clash.

This went on for a weeks, halting all mining in the area. The miners held up inside the mine to prevent scabs from coming in. Just when the Old Rise Mining Company was going to send in more guards, the mining shaft suddenly collapsed, trapping all 167 miners inside, 38 of them being children. Most had either been crushed in the collapsed or died from suffocation. Only 4 miners were able to get out, though all 4 were arrested for striking. No one knows why the mine collapsed. It is suspected that Old Rise Mining Company initiated the collapse, but there isn't any substantial evidence to support that.

Regardless of the circumstances surrounding the collapse, it became huge news in the area, with the streets of Johanalbal filled with people demanding change. Afraid of the mobs that could form, the government finally gave in and began issuing reforms like shorter work days and child labor restrictions and other forms of worker protection. However, this came to an end after the idea was spread of the legalization of labor unions, leading the many industry leaders to launch massive anti-labor and deregulation campaigns across the city, sending in waves of corporate supporters to the royal court to convince the government of how horrible labor laws are to business and the idea that it will lead to "anarchy" and the dissolution of the monarchy. It wasn't long after passing regulations that the government overturned all of them with the now infamous Economic Freedoms Act.

Groß: It was at this point in the book that you report that the government was overthrown. Can you elaborate on this?

Dr. Francesca: So, the EFA spark massive anger in the populace. For a while at this point, a group was spreading around Johanalbal called Oz Bloc, a xenophobic, violent, and Neo-Luddite anti-capitalist group that saw all the nation's problems being caused by the foreign companies coming in and corrupting the state. Specifically, they blamed A.I., which rose in population in the recent decades, and saw them as plotting to take over the nation and enslave humans.  Oz Bloc launched a successful overthrow of the government 4 days after the repeal of all labor laws. The government had now officially collapsed.

Groß: So when Oz Bloc arrives on the scene in the middle of 2013, it's interesting that you write that the Neo-Ludd group was welcomed by a lot of the people in Johanalbal. Why?

Dr. Francesca: Yeah, for many reasons. But the main reason is political and social. One thing that's often forgotten about Oz Bloc, especially as it functioned in the city, and that needs to be pointed out more, was that it was as much a political movement as it was a social movement. The group's appeal to the people of Johanalbal and to the people of Ozhonistan generally was a political appeal that was to the human working class specifically.

The appeal was that Oz Bloc was going to return them, the humans, to prominence in Ozhonistan. They have, in their view, been ruled now for many years by an A.I. supremacist government corrupted by foreign investors that's doing the bidding of more developed countries. And they, Oz Bloc, are going to restore humans to their rightful place in charge, not just in Johanalbal, but of the whole country. And this was hugely appealing to many people of Johanalbal, particularly the working class men, young and old. These are men who, for years now, had been abused or ignored by the corporatist government. Oz Bloc and other Neo-Luddists had been spreading the idea around of A.I. wanting to destroy their way of life.

Groß: Right. And we should note that Oz Bloc had a lot of money from the mining industries it took over and from criminal enterprises, so it could fund some civic infrastructure. So what changed over the next two years that made life so hard for the citizens of Johanalbal?

Dr. Francesca: Oz Bloc not acting like a government was the change. When they overthrew the government, they didn't take control of the country, but just got rid of the government. Not long after would there be gangs rising up like the Smokey Street Gang, Five Finger Jacks, and Oz Bloc being the largest. Each gang had their own of strict rules and morality in their territory, as well as executions and corporal punishments against civilians.

All the major gangs had also followed Oz Bloc's lead of Neo-Luddism, and violence against A.I. erupted. A.I. were dragged out of their homes and lynched in the streets. A.I. owned shops were looted, vandalized, and burned down. Many were physically torn apart in front of roaring crowds for their parts that would end up sold to the highest bidder both for their electrical parts and as souvenirs. In the week following the government collapse, it is believed that around 20%, 1 in 5, of the Johanalbal A.I. population were murdered. A lot of A.I. became very cautious after that, many becoming Androids to blend in whereas before one could walk around without fear and not look human.

Groß: And what happened to the A.I. population that survived? Your book tells us of resistance that formed as result of the violence.

Dr. Francesca: Yes, the mass persecution drove A.I. that used to live across the city into certain neighborhoods where they could take refuge from the Neo-Luddite gangs. These areas act more like refugee camps than neighborhoods; over packed, under resourced, and overall gloomy in attitude. It would be out of these ghetto like areas that A.I. gangs would form to combat the Neo-Ludd gangs and protect the neighborhoods. The most successful of the A.I. gangs is the Binary Swords, which has taken to directly fight the gangs and expand A.I. controlled territory. This gang has been in operation for years now and slowly have been bringing more land under their control. The largest two gangs, the Binary Swords and the Oz Bloc, are still fighting for control in the streets, with skirmishes every day, assassinations, torture, and so forth. The city is essentially divided in two: Human side and A.I. side. There are pockets of generally peaceful areas, but if either side was caught on the other, it was sure fire death.

About a year ago was when DSAC finally got involved, sending peacekeepers into the city to try and bring about peace. They came in from the south side and started from there, establishing a secure area, offering food and medical supplies. Their borders became packed with people fleeing to their safe zone, trying to get in and be safe, but that poses a great hazard to the Peacekeepers that are trying to take back land from the gangs but now have massive crowds they need to navigate through. The large groups also bring about violence, with a lot of Peacekeepers acting like police rather than military in trying to stop crimes and disruptions in the refugee areas. It is also in these areas that most DSAC peacekeeprs were fighting the gangs. This area became a triangle of destruction, with what was like armies pouring in from 3 sides. The surrounding population acted like a wall around the DSAC territory and that wall was constantly under attack.

Groß: So for citizens who were in the areas of conflict between Neo-Ludds, A.I. gangs, and peacekeepers who had hung on through all the warfare of previous years and found themselves in neighborhoods where skirmishes, bombs, and gunfire were coming in and they were surrounded by gang fighters among their neighborhoods, what were their options? What did they do?

Dr. Francesca: So there weren't many. The options were either stay or go. As for the south side, by the time the fighting began on the south side of the city, more camps had opened, so there was more opportunity for the people of Johanalbal to leave the city. And many of them did. Many thousands of them did from the south side.

Groß: Could you safely leave?

Dr. Francesca: Well...you could leave, not necessarily safely, but you could try to leave. Although the city is surrounded by many miles of wilderness so finding a safe place beyond the city is difficult. But many people in Johanalbal decided to stay for many different reasons, whether it was family or not wanting to leave their life long home or they had a business they needed to keep open or even more basic reasons like lack of safety in leaving or being too poor to afford anywhere else. Clearly on the south side, however, it is not safe to stay. The south side is absolutely a warzone. And I have no doubt that thousands of civilians have died so far in the fighting on the south side. We'll never know how many, but it's certainly been in the thousands.

I was able to leave the city with a large group of people, maybe 100 or so people. You have a much greater chance of being attacked while leaving if you're in a small group or alone, but large groups like the one I was in make it easier.

Groß: Do you see the conflict ending anytime soon?

Dr. Francesca: No I don't, sadly. Neo-Luddism has a strong hold on the city and is a driving force for a lot of the gangs, and that Neo-Luddism is the reason the A.I. gangs formed in the first place. Now those gangs are also like regular gangs and removing Neo-Luddism wouldn't actually stop them from trying to have control. The DSAC forces are doing good, but they're slow in recapturing the city and they would only be stopping the militants. It would take much longer to change the minds of the people who have been shaped by the fall of the Ozhonistan government and the ensuring years of gang war and instability. It's going to take a long time.

Groß: Dr. Francesca, thanks for your reporting, and thanks so much for speaking with us.

Dr. Francesca: Thank you, Larry. It was a pleasure.

Groß: Dr. Francesca is a contributing writer for The Blossom newspaper and is the author of the new book "Of Flesh and Steel; Johanalbal's Fall and the Rise of Neo-Luddism" After we take a short break, Mariana Lavell will review the new film "Jeb's Not Dead" starring Ricky Ticky and Joel Menuchun. This is Fresh Bear.

[studentloandebt]

DSAC is DSacked
By Audae Cornwallis | @acorn | @rpr.org | March 18th, 2019, 11:36 PM CST

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Crowds gather outside the gates of the Democratic Socialist Assembly Convention building, watching as Delegates begin to be escorted out with security forces protecting them. The delegates are leaving the building for the last time as members of DSAC as the global intergovernmental organization has voted to disband. The vote comes after years of continually decreasing efforts among member nations to keep the organization together and failing to continue operations.

How Did It Come To This?

DSAC has its origins of decline back during the dissolution of the ThinkCheese corporation. The global corporation declared bankruptcy and all projects were no longer operational. This included the Cheesemoon™ project, which was a large culmination of different cheeses that were launched into orbit. With the corporation no longer existing, the Cheesemoon™ was unable to stay operational and began to destabilize its orbit and would collide with the DSA. Nations of the Iskarian Intracontinental Union, who were members of DSAC at the time, proposed the destruction of the Cheesemoon™ by use of orbital weapons of mass destruction. This came in conflict with DSAC law which had banned orbital WMD's from existing. After heated debate between delegates, a vote was held to temporarily disband DSAC Resolution 5 that had banned orbital WMD's and was passed. The Cheesemoon™ was no more.

This dispute began the divide between the IIU nations and other DSAC nations. The IIU continued to distance themselves from DSAC and formed their own identity. Then came the nuking of Cessnia. Following a nuclear bomb that had detonated in the nation of Cessnia, the IIU called upon DSAC to do something to address this. The organization did nothing in response nor acknowledge the incident. Even though the IIU were voting members of DSAC, they themselves did not attempt to form a DSAC response, which was a sign of the continuing divide. The lack of response resulted in the IIU member nations withdrawing from DSAC and establishing the IIU as a rival organization.

Over the years following, DSAC would begin to drop in activity. Member nations no longer participated, no reports were released, no projects were initiated. In this time, more and more nations would begin to pull away. One of the biggest hits would be the withdrawal of the Debtian Isles from the organization, one of the founding nations of the organization.

What Happens Now?

As of now, no one really knows. The largest organization in the world has collapsed. As such, there is now no international body to uphold international law. The DSAC Resolutions are all effectively repealed as of now, including DSAC Resolution 4 which was one of the biggest acknowledgment of sapient rights in DSA history. Will the world enter into chaos? Will the IIU begin a path of global domination? Only time will tell. As for now, however, the DSAC headquarters will become quiet as the final light switch is flipped off. From RPR, I'm Audae Cornwallis.