Welcome to Spiritus!

First of all, welcome to NationStates, the nation simulation game where, yes you, can create your own nation and run it as you please. Will you rule democratically? Push for socialism? Perhaps you feel your citizens would be best under your direct care as their cruel yet loving dictator who runs the economy through street corner lemonade stands, or maybe just want to sell your entire nation out to the cult of the Violent Violetists. The possibilities, quite frankly, are limitless!

Second, welcome to Spiritus! We are a user-created region, which means that unlike The East Pacific, The South Pacific, or any other of the Pacific regions, which were created by NationStates itself, we were made by an actual player that serves as the region's Founder. Because we've got ourselves a Founder, we're more secure than the game-created regions, so feel safe here as we are 100% impervious to attack by foreign invaders. Don't worry, that will be explained later.

Third, there's no "winning" or "losing" this game. It goes on forever which really is the best part! What makes NationStates so fun? Well, the playerbase has created an international stage in which every region stands on, participating (or not) in some way. Essentially, the game is driven by the players and the creativity of the community, so the possibilities are (mostly) endless for what you can do around here. We'll get into that in a bit, but first, something very important:

The first thing you might want to do is turn off your recruitment telegrams. As you may notice, you're receiving quite a bit of them and it can be quite overwhelming, especially if you're just sitting here trying to figure out of your nation wants Democracy or not. Fortunately, now that you're already in Spiritus, you don't need to be getting any more of those frustrating things. Even more fortunately, there's a method for blocking them so you never have to receive another recruitment telegram again!

Just follow these steps to disable recruitment telegrams:

1. Go to your telegram Preferences.
2. Look for the options under Filter.
3. Click Block All next to Recruitment.
4. Click Update Filter.

Would you look at that? Those annoying telegrams will stop rolling in now!

Well, you can participate on Nationstates (or not) in one of a few ways:

1. You can join the Gameplayer (GP for short) community, which deals in politics between regional governments as well as military matters. There's a lot involved in the GP world.

Yes, there is military gameplay here on NationStates. How does it work? Well there are 2 sides to this: Raiding and Defending.

• Raiding is when a group of World Assembly nations invade a region in an effort to take the delegacy from the native nations of the targeted region by gaining more endorsements than the native delegate. Many groups then take it much further and hold regions, by changing the World Factbook Entry, suppressing native posts on the Regional Message Board, and ejecting native nations from the region they consider their home. Understandably so, this is a highly controversial, albeit popular mechanic of NationStates.

• Defending is when nations enter a region in an effort to prevent raiders from taking control of that region. The existence of raiding has essentially necessitated the existence and need for defending. We at Spiritus are firmly and strictly a defender region and encourage you to join us in the effort to defend the rest of the world against Invaders. Spiritus has its own own defender army, The Spiritus Defense Force, that actively deploys in the protection of others. If something like that interests you, then you can join us here and we'll train you to be a professional defender in no time at all. Citizenship is a requirement for service, however, but we'll get to that in a little bit.
  

Another active area of Gameplay is the World Assembly, something akin to the United Nations. In fact, it was actually called that until the website got a Cease and Desist Order from the real UN about usage of the name and logo! There you can write World Assembly proposals and try to get them passed. These take a lot of work and scrutiny just to reach the stage where it is seriously considered, but some people have a knack for it. World Assembly proposals, if they pass, affect every World Assembly nation in NationStates. Say you want to protect the environment, pass a new healthcare law or repeal previous legislation. Well, draft a professionally worded, well thought out proposal and submit it to The General Assembly Forum What if you feel a nation has done something great or terrible? Well, that's what The Security Council Forum is for. If someone has done something great, you can draft a proposal to commend their nation. If you feel someone has done something terrible then you can draft a proposal to condemn their nation. Keep in mind that all proposals must pass by majority vote, so your peers will also have a say in it. Do your best to sway their opinion, but keep it clean.

2. You can also join the roleplayer (or RP for short) community and roleplay in a region or on our forum here as something or someone from your favorite TV show, movie, videogame, etc. The list goes on. If you're more interested in Nation-based Roleplay, and perhaps our RP forum doesn't have what you're looking for, the NS Forum has a Forum Section dedicated to exactly that which you can check out. There's also an area on the NS Forum for other Roleplay types, such as In-Character Adventures and the like which you can find here.

3. Internet Ego not high enough? Need to win some debates? Well, NS General is the forum for you! Found here, it's a scary place where lots of debating goes on. If you do choose to poke your head in there, though, make sure you read all of the stated rules or you'll find your time on this website pretty short. The forum is, after all, quite heavily moderated. Need something a bit more mellow? Well, there's also the Arts and Fiction forum which is dedicated more towards discussion of literature and the arts. It's a pretty chill place.

4. You can choose to not participate at all and remain stationary, answering issues, growing your nation, and occasionally chatting on the Regional Message Board (or RMB for short) whenever you feel the need. It's much more fun to get involved, though, but it's your call!

Well, first things first,

You should join the World Assembly, which is pretty easy to do! Just make sure you've got an e-mail put in for your nation, which you should do anyway so you can recover your nation if you forget your password, and then head on over to page=un. There should be a big button there that says "Apply to Join" which you've just got to click. After that, just follow the instructions on screen and you'll eventually end up back on the World Assembly page as a fully-fledged World Assembly member.

Once you've done that, you should endorse our World Assembly Delegate The Salaxalans. By endorsing our Delegate, you ensure that Spiritus has more influence in the World Assembly! This is because a World Assembly Delegate's vote on a proposal is worth the amount of endorsements that he or she has, therefore meaning that more endorsements equals more power. Furthermore, the Spiritus forum has an area where you can vote for what the Delegate should do regarding a proposal, meaning that the Delegate is directly serving the citizens in that role, one of which could be you.

Next?

The best way to get more involved in Spiritus is to register on our off-site forum and apply for citizenship. It's pretty stress-free, as you just follow these simple steps:

1. Visit our off-site forum, located here. If you want to bookmark it, the website is www.spiritus.wtf
2. Register an account on our forum.
3. Apply for citizenship by filling out and posting the Citizenship Application.
4. Wait for your citizenship application to be approved. We get to these as quickly as possible, but it might take up to a day or two sometimes. We appreciate your patience!

Okay, and then?

After you've been approved for citizenship, the next step is up to you! You've got a ton of opportunities in Spiritus, including all of the following and more:

• Enlist in our military, the Spiritus Defense Force. Military Gameplay is one of the more fun things to do in Nationstates, and we'd love to have you by our side on the battlefield!

• Get involved in a Ministry. The Ministries are sub-branches of the Executive Government of Spiritus, with lots of opportunities for newcomers in them. Check them out and see if any catch your eye!

• Run for Regional Assembly, our Legislative Body. While there's a good chance there might not actually be an RA Election happening at this moment, you're encouraged to head over to the Citizens' Gallery where any citizen can comment on and suggest new bills for the Assembly. Getting involved there is a great way to build up a foundation from which to run for elected office from, as well as ensuring the Assembly's accountability to the citizens who elected it.

• Visit our IRC Chat Room. We hope you'll stop in and say hello, as we boast one of the most active Nationstates IRC Channels! Spiritus even has our own IRC Bot named Tammy, and she's pretty cool! Not only can she burn people to a crisp when annoyed, but she's also got plug-ins for games such as Uno and Cards Against Humanity! Plus, her developer Wuufu, a Spiritus citizen, is constantly adding more fun features that she can perform!

• Try out our roleplay, chat about anything you want, discuss and vote on World Assembly matters, start your own newspaper, play some fun time-wasting spam games, and much more!

If you've got any questions regarding either Spiritus or Nationstates, please don't hesitate to ask. We've all been the new person in Nationstates before, so we understand any confusion that may exist. Whether it's on the Regional Message Board, or by telegram to Integration Minister Tim-Opolis or Deputy Integration Minister Red Dusk, your questions will definitely find themselves answered and you'll hopefully find yourself a bit more informed!

Some other good resources to review, regarding both Spiritus and NS are:

• The NS FAQ - Containing many frequently asked questions about Nationstates, this is a pretty good place to check out if you just want a briefer.

• The One-Stop Rules Shop - A compendium of all of the NS rules and regulations, this is a pretty good thing to take a scan through. Most are common sense, but a few are worth noting, especially if you plan to be involved on the NS Forums.

• The NS Terms and Conditions - Yup, you clicked that checkbox when you made your nation. Find out what you actually agreed to!

• The Spiritus Codex - A collection of various guides that should help you figure out your time in Spiritus and NS a tad better.

• The Constitution of Spiritus - Ah, yes, the laws of the land! It's a good read, and a great way to learn about the layout of Spiritus in a more legalese way.

• The Spiritus Government Listing - This has a list of the entire Spiritus Government, telling you exactly who runs what, as well as brief overviews of the duties of each of the Ministries.

You certainly don't have to read all of those, so pick and choose based on what you think you may need to know.