Customs Example - Jasonia
- Colonel Vilhelm
- Apollo Foundation Administrator
- Posts: 2108
- Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2007 2:27 pm
- Location: Micras
- Contact:
Customs Example - Jasonia
The Preservation of Micronational Customs has always been a trait of the Foundation. Here's a prime example (salvaged from the Archives for easy access) - the Customs of the Flying Islands of Jasonia, one of our most prominent members - if you can call any of our members prominent.
Micronational customs can be defined as in-jokes, themes, and parts of a culture that arrive spontaneously by the people who participate in micronations - they are not artifical as fictional history or culture is, but are derived from the actual participation in micronations.
We all have heard of micronational fictional histories and factual histories, but we havn't actually recorded what makes the nation "alive." Plenty of micronations have some legacy in some sort or another, and these usually arrive in customs, which tend to survive past their micronation.
So this is something that I think would be very interesting to write up about, and I would suggest other people do it for their own nations, dead or alive. This one is about Jasonia.
Customs of the Flying Islands of Jasonia
PRH
PRH stands for the People's Republic of Hell, a nation that was the rival of the FIoJ. (At the time, Aeronesia) Through the poor diplomatic skills of Bill Dusch as well as Greg Norman, plus the animosity of the founders of the PRH themselves, the two nations quickly became enemies. President Jason Steffke declared a Lukewarm War, a war that was a bit more serious than a Cold War, mostly because of the constant mocking of the two individual countries. Out of this conflict came te propaganda of replacing "hell" (As in, "What the hell?") to be PRH. It stuck, and even after the Lukewarm War and the fall of the PRH, the saying continued to be said by many people, even outside Jasonia. It still exists today, mostly in Shireroth.
MagiGARP
To be fair, this custom was started with the United Demesos, but it became a full-fledged Jasonian custom once the United Demesos fell and its founder, Bill Dusch, joined. During the Dark Ages, in a chatroom about the Apollo Confederacy, (An organization similar to the UN for the Apollo Sector) President Jason Steffke of the FIoJ incorrectly typed the acronym of the Great Automatic People's Republic (GAPR) to be GARP. Bill Dusch, President of the United Demesos, added a bit to be "MagiGARP", (After the pokemon Magikarp) showing how pathetic the GAPR seemed to be to him. It was realized as genious, and a propaganda flag was made by Jason Steffke of a picture of the pokemon Magikarp with the label on the bottom, "MagiGARP." After the GAPR fell, the custom still stuck as a fictional species of fish that would permeate throughout all waters of the Apollo Sector.
"Bill, you are STILL young and stupid."
This line was originally from the first Control of Destiny script. (still available to those who want it) It showed Bill Dusch, retrospecting over his former days as President of the United Demesos, seeing how immature he was back then. Jason Steffke would then say this line, showing that Bill Dusch still *WAS* immature and hasn't changed since back then. Although it wasn't something said in micronations, it is an example of how a fabricated part of culture can influence and create a custom in itself - this is a saying related to Bill even today in Shireroth.
Blue Hair
During the Second Audentior, (What Republic number, I lost touch) the Audentior that was formed from the merge of Tapfer, Shireroth, Jasonia, Hyperborea, and the UAN, Jason Steffke (former President of the FIoJ at the time) dyed his hair blue. Most people were either amused ("It's now a federal offense to report to nations that we are trying to get respect from that our diplomat has blue hair") or thought it was rather cool. When Jasonia came around after the fall of Audentior after the July 11th elections incident, Jason's blue hair became a national symbol - it was impossible to imagine the President WITHOUT blue hair, and it represented part of the unique culture that was forming around Jasonia. Last Jasonia Day in 2005, former Jasonians celebrated the latest birthdate of the nation by dying their hair blue.
Brainsucking Pinapple
This little oddball was created by the silly Greg Nordman, who unfortunatly isn't in micronationalism anymore. It was a double login and controlled some sort of pineapple army. Basically all it did was threaten people of brain-sucking and order more pineapples to come in. Eventually became one of the "token animals/fauna" of Jasonia.
Flying Monkey of Jasonia
Another animal/login created by Greg Nordman. Basically all the login did was make monkey noises and spam, but once again it became a "token animal" of Jasonia.
Switching Day
The last custom to develop, although probably the most entertaining and significant of customs of Jasonia. Near the end of its days, this holiday was created in order to bring back fun to Jasonia. It went like this: Micronationalists would use unique user-names mimicking other micronationalists, and the point of the holiday was to guess which micronationalist was which. It was great fun as people constantly mocked each other. This was later done in Menelmacar and in Shireroth after Jasonia.
Jasonia Day
This one is sort of obvious. Jasonia Day takes place on the date of the founding of the Flying Islands of Jasonia, February 19th. First it was celebrated in Jasonia itself (only once - however, we did celebrate a six-month anniversary.) but later on it was revived in Menelmacar and in Shireroth. reminiscing the old days of Jasonia. This is one of the more active holidays that are celebrated in the nations that do celebrate holidays.
Aurora
Aurora was the not-so-real password that Harvey Steffke supposedly used for everything. Scott Siskind, at the time Head of Intelligence for the Flying Islands, was working on an uber-secret plan to bother Thomas Hubert in some way and needed a secret forum in which to converse with other spies and work on it etc. Harvey made up a new password, completely out of the blue, specifically for this forum and gave it to Scott - "Aurora". Scott assumed it was Harvey's password he used for everything and spent a couple of weeks trying to get into each of Harvey's accounts internet-wide using the password. Obviously, he didn't succeed, but out of the little escapade came the running joke that aurora was indeed Harvey's "Ultimate Password" he used for everything.
Micronational customs can be defined as in-jokes, themes, and parts of a culture that arrive spontaneously by the people who participate in micronations - they are not artifical as fictional history or culture is, but are derived from the actual participation in micronations.
We all have heard of micronational fictional histories and factual histories, but we havn't actually recorded what makes the nation "alive." Plenty of micronations have some legacy in some sort or another, and these usually arrive in customs, which tend to survive past their micronation.
So this is something that I think would be very interesting to write up about, and I would suggest other people do it for their own nations, dead or alive. This one is about Jasonia.
Customs of the Flying Islands of Jasonia
PRH
PRH stands for the People's Republic of Hell, a nation that was the rival of the FIoJ. (At the time, Aeronesia) Through the poor diplomatic skills of Bill Dusch as well as Greg Norman, plus the animosity of the founders of the PRH themselves, the two nations quickly became enemies. President Jason Steffke declared a Lukewarm War, a war that was a bit more serious than a Cold War, mostly because of the constant mocking of the two individual countries. Out of this conflict came te propaganda of replacing "hell" (As in, "What the hell?") to be PRH. It stuck, and even after the Lukewarm War and the fall of the PRH, the saying continued to be said by many people, even outside Jasonia. It still exists today, mostly in Shireroth.
MagiGARP
To be fair, this custom was started with the United Demesos, but it became a full-fledged Jasonian custom once the United Demesos fell and its founder, Bill Dusch, joined. During the Dark Ages, in a chatroom about the Apollo Confederacy, (An organization similar to the UN for the Apollo Sector) President Jason Steffke of the FIoJ incorrectly typed the acronym of the Great Automatic People's Republic (GAPR) to be GARP. Bill Dusch, President of the United Demesos, added a bit to be "MagiGARP", (After the pokemon Magikarp) showing how pathetic the GAPR seemed to be to him. It was realized as genious, and a propaganda flag was made by Jason Steffke of a picture of the pokemon Magikarp with the label on the bottom, "MagiGARP." After the GAPR fell, the custom still stuck as a fictional species of fish that would permeate throughout all waters of the Apollo Sector.
"Bill, you are STILL young and stupid."
This line was originally from the first Control of Destiny script. (still available to those who want it) It showed Bill Dusch, retrospecting over his former days as President of the United Demesos, seeing how immature he was back then. Jason Steffke would then say this line, showing that Bill Dusch still *WAS* immature and hasn't changed since back then. Although it wasn't something said in micronations, it is an example of how a fabricated part of culture can influence and create a custom in itself - this is a saying related to Bill even today in Shireroth.
Blue Hair
During the Second Audentior, (What Republic number, I lost touch) the Audentior that was formed from the merge of Tapfer, Shireroth, Jasonia, Hyperborea, and the UAN, Jason Steffke (former President of the FIoJ at the time) dyed his hair blue. Most people were either amused ("It's now a federal offense to report to nations that we are trying to get respect from that our diplomat has blue hair") or thought it was rather cool. When Jasonia came around after the fall of Audentior after the July 11th elections incident, Jason's blue hair became a national symbol - it was impossible to imagine the President WITHOUT blue hair, and it represented part of the unique culture that was forming around Jasonia. Last Jasonia Day in 2005, former Jasonians celebrated the latest birthdate of the nation by dying their hair blue.
Brainsucking Pinapple
This little oddball was created by the silly Greg Nordman, who unfortunatly isn't in micronationalism anymore. It was a double login and controlled some sort of pineapple army. Basically all it did was threaten people of brain-sucking and order more pineapples to come in. Eventually became one of the "token animals/fauna" of Jasonia.
Flying Monkey of Jasonia
Another animal/login created by Greg Nordman. Basically all the login did was make monkey noises and spam, but once again it became a "token animal" of Jasonia.
Switching Day
The last custom to develop, although probably the most entertaining and significant of customs of Jasonia. Near the end of its days, this holiday was created in order to bring back fun to Jasonia. It went like this: Micronationalists would use unique user-names mimicking other micronationalists, and the point of the holiday was to guess which micronationalist was which. It was great fun as people constantly mocked each other. This was later done in Menelmacar and in Shireroth after Jasonia.
Jasonia Day
This one is sort of obvious. Jasonia Day takes place on the date of the founding of the Flying Islands of Jasonia, February 19th. First it was celebrated in Jasonia itself (only once - however, we did celebrate a six-month anniversary.) but later on it was revived in Menelmacar and in Shireroth. reminiscing the old days of Jasonia. This is one of the more active holidays that are celebrated in the nations that do celebrate holidays.
Aurora
Aurora was the not-so-real password that Harvey Steffke supposedly used for everything. Scott Siskind, at the time Head of Intelligence for the Flying Islands, was working on an uber-secret plan to bother Thomas Hubert in some way and needed a secret forum in which to converse with other spies and work on it etc. Harvey made up a new password, completely out of the blue, specifically for this forum and gave it to Scott - "Aurora". Scott assumed it was Harvey's password he used for everything and spent a couple of weeks trying to get into each of Harvey's accounts internet-wide using the password. Obviously, he didn't succeed, but out of the little escapade came the running joke that aurora was indeed Harvey's "Ultimate Password" he used for everything.
Colonel Vilhelm von Benkern - Preserving the Memories (Regardless of whose those may be)
Pro at Cooking!
Antica
Pro at Cooking!
Antica