a short history on valsora (probably with inaccurate detailing!)

A short explanation of how Valsora came to be, because I like to brag about the little I did for the map and also it's cool to know about stuff I think.

Pre-Valsora (2018)

Before 2018, the RMB didn't really have a unified RP. There was a notable Sci-FI RP called TAMDEG (that died in 2018), but only a few nations participated in that. It was mostly just disjointed RP that you see in places without maps.

So in 2018, for fun, I made a map called Dibergia. By made, I mean I stole it from a map wiki (I had no idea of ethical crediting at the time), and began updating it for fun. This eventually became the main map for RMB RP, and I was its sole cartographer (besides a month or two where I asked someone else to run the map in my stead). The map was cool, but there were some complains about space so like any rational human I thought an entire new map was in order.

So I called together a team which eventually became the Valsora Council, consisting of me, Nova-Columbia, Libertanny, Sarkis, and Volstokn (I am mispelling their nation and idk what their curren tnation in TNP is but they're around). Libertanny designed the map itself, I think Nova helped with other design elements, and all of us pitched ideas for the map. Honestly I didn't do much after the team formed, and I think it was either Lib or someone else who suggested making a team in the first place so :x

Anyways, obviously people were a bit weird about Valsora. Many people liked Dibergia just fine, so to see Dibergia's "creator" sponsoring another map was probably not that great. Needless to say, Valsora shut down because the Council decided not to work on it since it recieved a lot of apathy and/or dislike. A few months down the line, Nova-Columbia asks if they can take ownership of the map, the rest of us agreed, and so it was done.

As an aside for the roleplay, during this time (mainly thanks to between when TAMDEG died and Dibergia began, probably because of Kampf Empire), there came to be a massive slew of nations trying to invade others. This kinda established the concept of "imperialism" as a really major threat in the RMB world, and this continued from 2018 and into later years of Valsora. RP was characterized by having a hegemon, who had the most colonies spread in the map. War conflict was mostly weird sci-fi tech and WW1/WW2 tactics. Weird time. Alliance roleplay was a major thing at this time, although you could do well without an alliance at this point (although at times, if u weren't in an alliance u'd get invaded, so you wouldn't always be fine).

Nova-Columbia's Valsora (2019-2020 (??))

So back to the map. After the Council gave Nova ownership, Nova-Columbia took over the map. I believe they reworked it, and then eventually released it as mostly a fun project for people to participate in much like I originally did with Dibergia. Speaking of Dibergia, I faintly remember not updating it during this time period for some reason (maybe being let down by the Council's failure or RMB inactivity? IDK.). In any case, for whatever reason, people started using Valsora. There was some slight pushback still, but eventually Valsora took over and became the RMB's main map.

Back when Valsora was in this time period, it was essentially Nova's map. I.e. - under his full ownership, because the Council that made it granted it to him. For a while, this worked out as Nova was active. However, Nova eventually had to dip to IRL for a bit, and somehow I came to temporarily act in his stead. In effect, I was the first official "Cartographer" after Nova, although at the time I only saw it as a temporary post and thus saw myself only as a temporary cartographer. The main time I ran the map can be seen here, although Nova popped in to take over (and rework the map) once or twice. I know I've served on two separate time periods as Carto, maybe three, but I can't recall lmao.

In anycase, during this time we also saw the rise of The Angel of Charity, who essentially became a notable RMB community leader (to the point where their empire's Discord server (their empire acted like an alliance) became the de facto RMB server). Angel proposed to Nova to create some RMB RP rules, which I, him, and Nova worked on together and you can see here. Others probably worked on them, I can't recall. In any case, as you can see we had RP mods who essentially enforced these rules.

As an aside, the roleplay during this time became more modernized. Angel basically led the way to more textwally RP with a focus on more modern RP tactics. With Angel becoming hegemon, we see the importance of imperialism via directly taking land become less important in comparison to alliance politics, although alliance politics themselves eventually died down as well. During late 2020 and early 2021 would see the rise of other short-lived but well made RMB maps as well, due to the falling inactivity of RP.

The Carto Valsora (2020 - 2022)

While other RMB Maps did pop up, Valsora still remained dominant. At this point, Valsora had changed a bit - having been reworked by Nova and with Nova then focusing more on IRL, the temporary cartographer position that I filled came to be a capital C Cartographer position. Final decisions for major, major changes were left up to Nova, but Cartographers (or Cartos for short) could now make more rule changes and they were essentially the major controllers of the map. I think I or Nova (or more accurately, me suggesting it/talking with Nova because I couldn't serve as Carto again) passed it on to Merlovich, who eventually passed it on to Shavara, who eventually passed it to Plazland.

During this time, the RMB mod system was retired as the Cartographers came to decide the Cartos should control moderation powers for RP, not another entity. Although the ruleset continued to be used, afaik.

In any case, during this time Valsora came to see a lotta dissent. Some people simply didn't really like the way the map was run - this culminated in a map called Valsora Redux being created, wherein a few nations simply tried to make their own Valsora. This was met with quite some backlash and the project was cancelled, but it showed how much discontentment there was.

Now (2022-Present)

So it should be no surprise that a petition, spearheaded by Kianhua, came to democratize Valsora by making it under a specialized council with distinct roles. This petition got some support, but Plazland (the Cartographer at the time) didn't really respond to it.

This led Merlovich to spearhead a new Council petition, this one with a Council of 3 Cartographers instead of a specialized Council. This petition, initially, didn't get much support from Plazland, but Plazland eventually agreed to it. Nova-Columbia also gave over ownership of the map to the Council, ensuring it was community owned once more after years of Nova's stewardship and hard work into the map.

Plazland, Merlovich, and Dabristan were the first elected Councillors I believe, although with Plazland resigning, Terreich got elected. And now the Council is doing stuff like establishing new rules and whatever else the Council does. IDK.

That's the history of Valsora for ya.

Fun fact I like to mention: Valsora is named off of a continent of Dibergia. There's also a planet in the Suliasystem, called Mefugris, that is named after another continent! :3

EDITS:

• Thanks to merlo + others for some corrections on the cartos

• Thanks to nova for helping me spell Volstokn :sob:

• Also, apparently two years ago I wrote a more detailed write-up on RMB RP as a whole here. I'm not gonna fact-check 2-year-ago me, but if you want a more detailed RMB RP history until 2021 focused on RP instead of just primarily the map, go and read! ^-^