Great Mazaloom Symposium: Regional Reform Announcement

(Year 232, Spring) The annual gathering, now with the refined name Great Mazaloom Simposium, took place this weekend at Museum of Classical Music in San Sequoia. Attempting a full regional rotation, this conference finds a new venue every year - last year in Tartosa. It is officially hosted by The Royal Chamber, quite often involving HRM King Tarriot, but other top positions of our community might join as well. This year the local Duke Vibrattore de Aarbyville contributed with a classical concert to celebrate his 50th birthday, and major details regarding the Regional Reform Y233 was announced!

King Tarriot leads the Royal Chamber, and is therefore a central person at the annual Symposium.

The guest list is always topped by the Royal Chamber, the kingdom's 5 dukes, as well as all 8 regional Councilors.

Military Meeting

(Year 232, Spring) The Mazaloom-Snorthia conflict, also known as the "Moon Liza conflict", has been ongoing for more than a year already. It makes communication between the two nations very challenging, and this week Gran Marshal Robert Calves initiated a meeting including HRM King Tarriot and Prime Minister Rob Wilder. The conflict was frozen for a while, which might make this a good moment for attempting to debate good solutions.

Left to right: HRM King Tarriot, Grand Marshal Calves, PM Wilder.

The three Mazaloom leaders met at Calves office at Old Penelope Military Base in StrangerVille. They agreed not to bring any secretaries or other staff, making it easier to discuss freely. This first step will not lead to any big decisions, but might pave the ground for future possibilities.

Jewelry Crafting History in Focus

(Year 232, Spring) Jewelry crafting was always a big thing in Mazaloom kingdom. These days the interest for unique pieces of necklaces, earrings, rings and bracelets have reached a new top, and it's time to have a look into the history, rules and restrictions - not to forget some of the interesting side careers!

Mazaloom has a system of Produce Deeds. They are certificates that can be bought in order to sell crafted goods more easily through the "drag & drop" system. Without such a Deed, you can still craft whatever you like, but unless you intend to keep or gift your produce, it can only be sold from a retail store or a sales table.

The number of Produce Deeds for Jewelry is very limited, and this is where the toughest restriction ticks in - there are only room for TWO professional business! One is already held by House of Rab-Saxor, who runs the Jespers Jewelry Broker business in Magnolia Promenade. The second deed is vacant!

Political Parties: Annual Gatherings

(Year 232, Spring) Every year in Spring the political parties will arrange their annual meetings. This is where they debate adjustments to their Political Plan, as well as make changes to their internal core group. Their Political Plan normally includes 2 Causes, 4 N.A.P.s and 4 Statements. While Causes and N.A.P.s rarely get adjusted, the Statements are what directly reflect the party's direction, as it might influence on some groups of residents through the «5 years tax».

These meetings are normally minor events that are not reported on this blog. But this time there is a brand new party, SIM WORLD party, which was founded last Winter and just held their very first annual gathering. Due to the switch from 3 to 4 parties, there were also minor changes to each political party's platform. Biggest change regards fewer N.A.P.s per party. The 5 years election is still a couple years ahead of us, so it was the perfect timing for the chambers to decide on a few minor adjustments to the political system, which have immediate effect.

Prime Minister Wilder (RIGHT party) is satisfied with the results.

- We tried to limit those changes. Just four N.A,P.s per party (used to be 6) will hardly be noticed, and then we have a change to the Statements, which must now represent all five department fields. There will now be only two fractions within each party, and this might also help voters to see differences between parties more clearly. These adjustments will not be affected by the upcoming «Regional Reform Year 233».

The Royal Family - Titles and Payroll

(Year 232, Spring) It takes quite some rules, traditions and routines to make the nation work well. One part of this is how the royal family is organized, including their titles and allowances. A system that might seem a bit overwhelming at first, but when we break it down a bit, most rules make perfect sense.

Below is a fresh family photo released right after the Crown Princess' 20th birthday last year. All of them are related somehow, but not necessarily a member of the Royal Family or the Royal House of Luxe-Hamper. You might wonder why the children were not joining, but at the moment the minors counted only 3 infants. 6 teenagers are featured, though.

Photo from the celebration of HRH Crown Princess Emireza's 20th birthday. Front: HRH Queen Venezia and HRM King Tarriot. Standing left to right: Baroness Suzi de Portefino, Prince Ace, Countess Bequeenie de Tredony, Prince Jerome, Lord Millaus de Luminosa, Prince Bazil, Baroness Amalia de Vert, Baron P. de Vert, Crown Princess Emireza, Princess Duella, Prince Cecil, Lord Nicham de Luminosa, Prince Marcuz, Princess Evendice, Prince Royal Blaise, and Prince Marquis.

Seeing Mazaloom's Monarch in light of the administration of a nation, the Monarch is head of the Royal Chamber, which according to our Institution is one of three chambers sharing the power. Because of this the royals did not exactly choose their position, just as much as they can not just decide that enough is enough - let's become plumbers instead! No, they happen to be one of those three major fundaments forming the platform of our community. The Royal Family is there to assist the Monarch and to serve the nation, but also to secure future heirs. Luckily for the Monarch, there is a bunch of individual persons who can help, but only some of them will get paid by being on the royal payroll.

Population Growth

(Year 232, Spring) Mazaloom kingdom has grown rapidly over the generations, but during the past few years it seems like population numbers have reached a peak for now. Compared to the Year 230 numbers there was actually a drop of 0,12 %.

515 indexed residents aged 25 and up, anno Year 232 (incl. a few foreigners). Click for a larger version.

The population was not counted in detail until recent years, but although we can not calculate the exact graph, in most regions there was a significant growth. This is not unique to Mazaloom, but goes for most nations that we can compare to. With community development living got easier, regions and districts got more specialized, and depending on desired life situation families moved to the district where they saw the greatest possibilities for them. It got easier and safer to move, as well as to sell and buy property. Recently we also got certain restrictions for Landlords - changes that for the most will benefit the tenants. Various sorts of population restriction has been debated over the years. One question is why did the 8 regions develop so differently? This can easily become one of the hot topics for the upcoming Y235 election. We have guidelines, but there is no official politics regarding population growth.

Horse Ranch: The Training Grounds - 5 of 5

Here comes the 5th and last chapter of my unscripted mini series «The Training Grounds», where the The Sims 4 Horse Ranch EP is in focus. The Training Grounds is a residential lot owned by the M.E.A., rented by Stian Pratt-Anderson (57). There he lives alone with his 1 2 3 4 rescued horses. So why does he feel a bit lonely and grumpy?

One of Stian's traits is the High Maintenance trait, which makes him very tense at times. If you want to have your nails done more or less constantly, then you should probably not run a training center with 4 horses in the first place. But if you still do - make sure you get time to tend to your own needs, not only the horses' needs. Tornado, King, Saffron and Tuff seem to get along very well, and at least their social needs should be met.

The Mysterious Glimmerbrook Horse

(Year 232, Spring) There exist several reports, and yet nobody was allowed to get close to the white and pink Unicorn of Glimmerbrook. The owner, Count Helfert of Ticktop (48), can occasionally be seen riding this spectacular creature.

They never take a ride during daylight hours, but there is no information stating whether the horse is shy of light or they simply try to ignore curious tourists. Over the past years tourism has grown and Glimmerbrook has more short term visits than ever before. This is not thanks to the unicorn, though, but the Brook Herbarium that has become quite popular, also for exclusive but small weddings.

Glimmerbrook was always a rather secluded community, their Tickertown is still very hard to locate unless you hire a local guide. Half their population is said to reside there, in Tickertown. Glimmerbrook with Tickertown is the total of Region 8 Ticktop. With a population of only 4,000 this region is doomed to expire, as hey will shortly be merged with a neighboring region. Details are yet not official.

King Tarriot receives Family Tree

(Year 232, Spring) Yesterday HRM King Tarriot held a special audience for the Historical Society's leader, Mila Munch. The occasion was the society's first print of the new series of family trees honoring a few of our most important houses.

HRM King Tarriot received the first framed family tree; tree of the House of Luxe-Hamper. 

The series involves most of the high nobility Houses, but Munch states there will also be a few no longer existing houses. Starting with the royal House of Luxe-Hamper felt natural.

Regional Reform 233 - Speculations

(Year 232, Spring) Following numerous complaints stating that the Regional Reform 233 comes too late and debates taking too long, Prime Minister Wilder has confirmed more information to be announced in a few weeks! Now that the refined national map is ready, bar a few possible minor adjustments with reference to the ongoing «Come Rain Come Shine» weather system science project, it gets a bit easier to see the bigger challenges. We know where the culprits are located, and while a few changes might stir up protests, there are also smaller changes with hardly any effect.

The Mazaloom Kingdom map. Click for a larger version.

The map might appear as rather compact, but Mazaloom kingdom is just a small corner of the world. The number of 8 regions shall not change, but some borders will adjust, hopefully with more equal population numbers per region than today, which is the goal of the entire reform. The main challenge is that Region 12 is too large, stretching through most of he nation. It covers districts like San Myshuno, Del Sol Valley, Magnolia Promenade, Gloomville, Evergreen Harbor, Brindleton Bay, Newcrest and the arid Oasis Springs with StrangerVille annex. Everyone acknowledge the splitting of this region is the most dramatic change to come, but how will it be executed?

Nobility Calendar of Year 232

Now with photos! Time has come for a more narrow focus on the royal house and just one high nobility house from each region. Awaiting the Regional Reform Year 233, this might be the last time we have most high nobility listed.

It's now Year 232!

The Royal Palace Office (RPO) handles all events, invitations and more. The Royal House will mostly serve the community by attending various events out in the 8 regions as well as abroad. In addition there will be a few events hosted by them. In addition they might accept invitations from each region's highest nobility house - they equals to the 8 members of the High order of the Baltazar.

Summer is Social Season, packed with smaller or ad-hoc events with less formality and shorter notice, leading up to the Grand Ball at the royal palace. On top of this there are quite some representations involving patronages and more. Each high nobility house will typically host a couple events every year. They rarely take on community engagements outside their home district, unless being urged by the RPO. Guests are traditionally from same or one step down ranks, or even lower ranks if there exist family, historical or geographical connections. Each house will rarely accept more than two invitations per season, Summer (Social Season) is the exception, and the Royal House with more active members might get busier.

Mazaloom NEWS - Year 231

Year 231 has closed, and Mazaloom NEWS is here with highlights (and some less lighted) news from Mazaloom kingdom and beyond. The format has changed, no longer focus on Region 12, but the entire kingdom, and even a new section covering news from other nations like Empire of Snorthia and Sea kingdom. Five minutes video with news, job openings and family notes, hosted by Simmerville Studio's news anchor, Paulo Caliente.