The South PacificBoard

My Algebra I teacher found my real last name to be interesting, as to him, it sounded like a name an evil supervillain would have. The class felt it needed its own antagonist, and one day in 2019, we were discussing who it should be. Five words I said that day is what started it all.

"Fine, I'll do it myself."

From that day, I built my personality in that class around my fake totalitarianism and strong will for world domination. This is what brought forth the idea of the Melicorian Empire, a vast nation that would be under my total control. For a few months, I creatively incorporated the concept into various projects and assignments, including a magazine cover for Principles of Information Technology and a drawing for US History. However, there were some questions to be answered: how would I rule the empire, and where would it be located?

On the third week of February 2020, I remembered that for about a week in 2016, I played a computer game where you could create your own country and rule over it, but I forgot its name. Towards the end of the week, I simply Googled something along the lines of "create your own country", and I finally rediscovered it: NationStates.

On the evening of February 23, my parents were out playing tennis with some of their friends and I was at home by myself. At 6:06:06 PM Central Standard Time, I brought Melicorium into existence in the South Pacific.

The next day in English class, I asked my close friend, who sat next to me, if he wanted to create his own country. He was curious about what I just said, and at that moment, I introduced him to NationStates. Sometime that week, Southern shrekistan was created.

For about three weeks, I ruled Melicorium as a totalitarian dictatorship disguised as a socialist democratic republic located in one third of the real life United States, as well as Ontario in Canada. About two weeks after Southern Shrekistan was created, its founder decided that he had brought it into an unsatisfactory state. This led him to found a new nation - Coahuila y Tejas, just without the first "a".

A week after its inception, my friend's nation already had its own canon map and history. I immediately joined in his canon (because why not), and for about three months after that, we coexisted in the same timeline and on the same map. In that time, Cohuila Y Tejas (henceforth referred to as Cohu) expanded its borders significantly, taking over most of the Americas, while Melicorium annexed a considerable amount of American states and Canadian provinces, as well as switched its canon to an actual socialist republic.

In the meantime, I made sporadic posts on TSP's regional message board, actually becoming an active RMBer around late April. In March, I met Proctethia (henceforth referred to as Procty), who was currently one of the Local Councillors. He seemed like a genuinely nice person and someone who is fun to talk to. Around the time I became active on the RMB, I fought my first roleplay war against Western fardelshufflestein (known henceforth as Fardel), and it was actually quite enjoyable. In May, I also met Laamiva, who I found to be a good artist and someone who could engage in interesting conversation. That same month, The great parkguinius (henceforth referred to as Parky) expanded its totalitarian empire, claiming Melicorium as part of its territory. While Procty and Laamiva gladly became part of Parky's empire, I showed great resistance and attempted to liberate Procty from Parky's iron grasp. However, the struggle did not last long, as in June, Parky's nation was deleted by the NS moderators for participating in some not-PG-13 telegram conversation.

In early June, I started actually talking in the TSP Discord server, which I had joined a little over a month earlier. I also started actually being active on Discord itself, and began talking with Cohu, Procty, and Laamiva via Discord. Sometime that month, Cohu decided to drop his real-world canon and start a new, fictional one, forcing me to also rewrite my canon, which remained in the real world. Later in the month, the TSP Summer Fest occurred, and it was the first cultural event that I participated in. There, I met one of the festival organizers, Imperial dodo (henceforth referred to as Swifty), who I just found to be cool. That same month, I noticed Purple Hyacinth's (henceforth referred to as Hya) habit of liking every new post on the RMB, just like I did and still do. I also voted Amerion into power as SUPREME LEADER World Assembly Delegate.

Late July was when the first Local Council election I ran in commenced. I released a campaign that I had worked on for a total of about six hours. In the first round, things looked good for me, as I maintained a third-place position in the poll. Seconds before the poll ended, I broke the tie between Auphelia and Volaworand (henceforth referred to as Vola), causing Vola to win. However, this greatly upset Auphelia, and combined with Vola's endorsement of Drystar in the second round, this caused me to directly attack older TSP nations, upsetting Auphelia even further. I lost the second round, and all three of the so-called Geriatric League were elected Local Councillors.

Interestingly, at the time of the second round of the LC elections, The Black Hawks and some of their raider friends invaded and occupied South Pacific. Feeling pity for the innocent natives, and having lost the election, I enlisted in the South Pacific Special Forces under the command of then Minister of Military Affairs Fihami (henceforth referred to as Phoenix), who I had met a number of weeks earlier. After the successful liberation of South Pacific, I started to become an active member of Libcord. Raiding and defending gameplay was new and exciting for me, and Phoenix gave me some good training. Because of this, my interest in the RMB dwindled, but only temporarily.

By October, I had actually become friends with Phoenix, Swifty, and Hya. Early that month, and in the midst of the ongoing Cabinet elections, I became a legislator due to peer pressure constant encouragement from Hya, the Chair of the Assembly. One week after that, Phoenix promoted me to the rank of Soldier in the SPSF after an intense but enjoyable test. Around that time, I started becoming actively involved in the RMB again. In either October or November, North prarie (henceforth referred to as Prarie) started to build the region of Komme Sammen, which I and several of my friends decided to take part in. However, this didn't last very long, as we essentially just lost interest in the project, and most of our nations in the region ceased to exist.

Late November was the start of another Local Council election that I partook in. This time, my campaign was more thought out, had better aesthetics, and even included an animated video. I maintained a third-place position in the first-round poll, so I felt good about my prospects. The second round, however, was when things began to get interesting. As you should probably know if you were around at that time, Philippinia sent out a mass telegram to almost all WA members in TSP bribing for votes for Shangyuen (henceforth referred to as Shang), giving him a very large lead in the original second-round poll. However, this action was illegal, causing Pencil Sharpeners 2 to start a new poll for the second round. On the second full day of the poll, Vola brought me into a puppy-kicking scandal as part of his plan to bring Beepee into victory and maintain the Geriatric League's grasp on power. I eventually conceded the second round to Beepee, but I have not given up hope since then - people say that "third time's the charm".

By late December, the various friendships that I have forged months earlier became stronger, and I had started building the current version of the United Socialist States of America's canon. Around the same time, I befriended Eareamland (henceforth referred to as Maple) and Doge Land (henceforth referred to as Waffle), who are fellow Robloxians. In January, I supported Beepee's campaign for WA Delegate, largely for his charisma and because he had my respect for being a good opponent in the previous LC elections. I also started getting involved in more legislative activity that month, giving some of my thoughts on the TSP flag debate and joining the newly-created Commission on Laws.

This month - February - saw the first Cabinet election I voted in, and my attempt to become more active in the Assembly. Recently, I joined Inferno Stellaria, a project by Phoenix to build her own region. This time, it does not seem like a user-created region I joined will stop becoming active, and I am looking forward to what lies ahead for it. I also won the TSP Lampshade Award for RMBer of the Year, owing to my high activity on the RMB and assistance of new South Pacificans.

In this one year that has passed since Melicorium came into existence, I have significantly changed my nation, made many friends, changed various involvements, and overall had a good time playing NationStates. NS now accompanies Roblox as my most-played game whenever I am on my computer. I now see TSP as one of the major communities outside of my family that I am part of, along with my school and Biblaridion's Alien Biospheres project.

A big shoutout to Auphelia and Roavin for being people that scare me; Fardel for being a good opponent in the Great Durian War; Procty and Shang for being nitpicks; Maple for killing my eyes hundreds of times by showing me his cursed guns; The moonstar for intentionally mispronouncing my alias (IT'S MELIX, NOT MEELIX >:/); a certain pseudo-fascist for stealing Psomewhere out of spite; a certain Hindu nationalist for being a pure jack-donkey; The Black Hawks, Lily, Europeia, Lone Wolves United, and several other organizations for invading innocent regions and vandalizing them for clout and their own enjoyment; all of the various spammers and trolls that have plagued TSP’s RMB; and most of all, Cohu, who has been my friend in real life for over a year, and my friends that I have made along the way - Procty, Laamiva, Parky, Phoenix, Swifty, Hya, Maple, Waffle, who knows who else - and most importantly, the eternal Supreme Leader and Admiral Delegate General of the South Pacific, Amerion.

One final thing: thank you, Mr. Turner.

This dispatch was published exactly one year after Melicorium was created - 6:06:06 CST on February 23.

Credits
Purple Hyacinth - Revising and editing