Header Courtesy of Lynxi 

May 2019  

New Government, Who Dis?

By: Madame M. Anabelle

The first month of Pharaoh Lynxi's reign seen not only new appointments to Osiris government but also new awards and new developments in Foreign Affairs.

To replace her as Vizier of Community Affairs, Lynxi has appointed Anabelle. This will be Anabelle's first Vizier position, but not her first government position.
This comes as a promotion from previously serving as the Sub-Vizier of Community Affairs and she remains a member of the Council of Priests.

Two more newcomers to #teamOsiris are Lady Sylvia and Sarah Bread as the World Assembly (WA) Sub-Vizer and Sub-Vizier of Culture respectively.

While she is a recent addition to this particular team, Lady Sylvia is not new to Osiris. She ran for Pharaoh when it was an elected position and was the first
Chief Vizier. Now, she brings her wealth of experience to the WA Affairs team.

Sarah Bread is a relative newcomer to Osiris. However, she has shown that she has the willingness and initiative to promote culture and fun as a part of the
Community Affairs team in Osiris.

Not all of the Osiran government is new. Following the adage of 'if it ain't broke don't fix it,' Lynxi has retained Josh as the Sub-Vizier of Media, Kyru as
Sub-Vizier of Propaganda, Rachael as the Vizier of Gameside Affairs with Ham and Skies serving as Sub-Viziers. Lady Midnight stays as the Vizier of WA Affairs.
Tethys remains Chief Scribe with Rocky serving as his Deputy.

As a part of Osiris culture, sometimes the Pharaoh inducts deserving individuals into Ancient Orders of Osiris. These orders provide with them titles and styles.

The first award goes to Master Wymondham for excellence during his time as Chief Scribe and his work in furthering Osiran Legislature. He is inducted into the
Ancient Order of Ma'at.

While he was Commander of the Sekhmet Legion, Master Benjabobaria used his skill and determination to take the Legion to new heights. For his dedication, he
is inducted into the Ancient and Martial Order of Sekhmet.

Showing that it's what they do for Osiris and not the length of their stay, Madame Rachael has made quite an impression as Vizier of Gameside Affairs. For her
leadership, she is inducted into the Ancient Order of Aset.

On the Foreign Affairs side of things, a new accord is born of careful talks and personal effort on Lynxi's part between Osiris and The Rejected Realms (TRR).
Although relations between both regions have not always been cordial, it seems that both areas are turning over a new leaf. The treaty fittingly called "The Lost and
Found Accords." replaces the Non-Aggression Pact the regions previously had. In it, the agreement recognizes that although raider-aligned Osiris and defender-aligned
TRR may find themselves on opposing sides of some military operations, they will support each other's legitimate governments and endeavor to share cultural events.

Cultivating new relationships is something Osiris is currently working on, and with a new treaty already signed and passed so early into Lynxi's reign, it seems
hard work is paying off.

Regions, however, aren't the only things receiving a treaty. Gameplay publication NSToday and Osiris has entered into an agreement, the first of its kind under
Osiris' most recent constitution, allowing some of the content published in the Osiris Oracle to also be published in NSToday. It was negotiated and signed by Lynxi,
Josh, Anabelle and Lewis Kuznetsov-Flood, on behalf of NSToday.

What’s Happening in the WA

By: Lady Midnight

The General Assembly was itself more active than it had been in March. Of the roughly six proposals that went to vote in April, two failed, one passed and was
repealed in shortly after, one was a regular proposal, and the last was a repeal of a previously long-standing resolution. “Drug Abuse Amelioration Act” and "Fair
Depository Standards Act” were the two of these that failed to pass, primarily for technical flaws in either the wording & construction of understanding of the subject at
hand. The proposal that did pass, “Astronomical Data Repository Act” did so with a record-breaking percentage of votes for it, beating the prior record held by the
resolution banning child pornography. “Protecting Personal Data” was the proposal that did pass and was shortly after repealed, mainly on the grounds of poorly
thought out mandates. The final proposal was “Repeal "Endangered Species Protection," done for flaws in mandates in order to clear the way for a better resolution on
the same topic.

Comparatively, the Security Council was significantly less busy, with two proposals total achieving vote at either end of the month, The first of these was yet
another repeal attempt on the Liberation of CCD, done for admitted reasons of promoting themselves and recruitment. It therefore resoundingly failed. The other of
these was “Condemn Darkesia,” which passed quite well and sought to Condemn a certain chocolate-loving renegade of TWP.
 Point/Counterpoint
A debate by Josh and Prarie, foreword by Josh

Well here we are again. Point and Counterpoint. My baby. Too bad circumstances routinely prevent me from paying proper attention to my actual job over the
Oracle, this time a severe illness has wiped me out for days. This time we’ve got something great, and rather deep, which I in no way stole from a question posed on our
RMB by our wonderful Gameside Affairs team. Thanks GA! That question? “Is human nature constant or is it moulded by culture? Can human nature be completely
changed by culture or society?”

Josh Prarie
Ah... human nature, always a fun concept. As someone who likes to discuss various utopias
(and did a uni course in them) I've actually given this a fair bit of thought - even considered writing While Josh makes a fair point, there is an
an essay on it before I decided to have some fun discussing how one needs to be authoritarian in a argument for the fact that no, human nature, ultimately,
utopia to keep it from going off the rails. Those things are definitely connected, but I’ll (mostly)
spare you the spiel on authoritarianism this time. remains constant.
Everything humans do, say, believe etc. is a product of our environment - be it "natural"
environment or social environment. Social constructivism is a fascinating rabbit hole to dive into,
As humans, our decisions, life choices, and genetic
and I encourage you to dive into it in your own time, but I'm going to give you the basics to get you code may change microscopically, but will always,
on board a little and then elaborate. ultimately, remain the same. Quoting the Association for
"Social constructivism is a sociological theory of knowledge according to which human
development is socially situated and knowledge is constructed through interaction with others."​ So
Philosophical Science:
says the great Wikipedia.
“Shakespeare’s plays reveal that no matter how
What this ultimately means is that nothing we think has any concrete meaning in society
holds that meaning without a context for that meaning to exist within. Change the context, or even much language, technology, and mores have changed in
change an individual's perception of society, and the meanings change too. Ultimately you get a the past 400 years, human nature is largely undisturbed.
situation where you realise that "strawberry" doesn't actually mean anything at all and you're going
to have a really hard time describing what one is to someone (or probably something - like a
Macbeth’s ambition, Hamlet’s indecision, Iago’s
computer) who doesn't know what "fruit," "colour," "smell," "taste," or "shapes" are. Everything jealousy, Kate’s feistiness, and Juliet’s love are all
requires some level of experienced context to understand everything else. To emphasise my point, I instantly understandable.”
present another quote, this one from a rather more academic source (The Construction of Social
Reality);
"To give you a feel for the complexity of the problem, I want to begin by considering the Series like Game of Thrones and Shakespearean
metaphysics of ordinary social relations. Consider a simple scene like the following. I go into a plays are set or written in an old, almost medieval, time
café in Paris and sit in a chair at a table. The waiter comes and I utter a fragment of a French
sentence. I say, "un demi, Munich, à pression, s'il vous plaît." The waiter brings the beer and I period. However, as the APS stated, the decisions and
drink it. I leave some money on the table and leave. An innocent scene, but its metaphysical political power moves are still reflective of today’s
complexity is truly staggering, and its complexity would have taken Kant's breath away if he had
ever bothered to think about such things. Notice that we cannot capture the features of the
society.
description I have just given in the language of physics and chemistry. There is no
physical-chemical description adequate to define "restaurant," "waiter," "sentence of French," Humans always want to do what is best for them,
"money," or even "chair" and "table," even though all restaurants, waiters, sentences of French,
money, and chairs and tables are physical phenomena. Notice, furthermore, that the scene as
and them only. That is constant and has been set in our
described has a huge, invisible ontology: the waiter did not actually own the beer he gave me, but DNA since the beginning of time. Even when given the
he is employed by the restaurant, which owned it. The restaurant is required to post a list of the decision to do something for themselves or for their
prices of all the boissons, and even if I never see such a list, I am required to pay only the listed
price. The owner of the restaurant is licensed by the French government to operate it. As such, he sibling or parent, such as have a million dollars, most
is subject to a thousand rules and regulations I know nothing about. I am entitled to be there in the would choose to put those Franklins into their own bank
first place only because I am a citizen of the United States, the bearer of a valid passport, and I
have entered France legally. Notice, furthermore, that though my description was intended to be as
account.
neutral as possible, the vocabulary automatically introduces normative criteria of assessment.
Waiters can be competent or incompetent, honest or dishonest, rude or polite. Beer can be sour, Scientifically, a person’s genetics can only be
flat, tasty, too warm, or simply delicious. Restaurants can be elegant, ugly, refined, vulgar, or out
of fashion, and so on with the chairs and tables, the money, and the French phrases. If, after
changed by rare DNA transplants or alterations, which
leaving the restaurant, I then go to listen to a lecture or attend a party, the size of the metaphysical are reserved for the ultra-sick or ultra-rich. Therefore,
burden I am carrying only increases; and one sometimes wonders how anyone can bear it." the root of your decision and the root of what you want
I think that thoroughly demonstrates that social reality is a very much constructed affair. to do in a situation will always remain constant, based
Why, one might ask, does this apply to human nature? Maybe it is human nature that social reality on genetics and the design of the brain and its’
is constructed, and if that is your definition then I say it is probably one that can exist in all
fairness. People don't tend to hold such a limited view of human nature though - they attach all
fight-or-flight mechanism.
kinds of cultural and political baggage to the concept. Attempts to universalise the idea that there is
one consistent "desired order of being" by (mostly) Western scholars have been... unsatisfactory at So no. While it can be influenced, human nature
best. Naturally, one runs into the same problem of words and meaning as with anything else if one
tries to claim something about consistent and universal "human nature."
will remain constant at its’ root through the evolution of
time.
If one argues for a "love of basic values like freedom and democracy" as a definition for
human nature, firstly, one is probably American! But further consideration must be applied to this
or any other claim of values. What does democracy mean to a person? The Chinese conception is
radically different to that of the American one. Russia's is different still, not to mention the broadly
divisive and different conceptions existing within actual ​ideologies,​ rather than mere cultural-social
norms, that attempt to define such things. Freedom is a similarly sticky concept, just try to get a
libertarian and an authoritarian socialist to agree on it and you'll see my point here. Even basic
statements like "humans are inherently driven towards conflict" don't function in a society
structured so conflict is neither necessary, nor enjoyable, nor even viewed as possible. In a "state of
nature" thought experiment, sure, humans are driven towards conflict, but only because of the
natural and social (or rather, lack of social) conditions imposed upon them. Thus, the realisation
that social constructivism as a perspective brings to human nature is that it, like all social cues, is a
learned trait, built from many interactions over many years in specific circumstances. By changing
those circumstances, one changes the life experiences, and thus the core beliefs, the “nature,” of the
person experiencing them. Material conditions maketh the man.

This isn't to say that there's no probable right answer politically, I just believe it needs to be
couched in creating an environment where human nature can be at its best, not creating an
environment that "best reflects" a fluid human nature. Anyone who's talked to me on the topic of
technocracy knows I definitely advocate something. I've probably rambled on for longer than
anyone wants to read though, and while I could easily say more on this I doubt people are inclined
to listen. So, in short, "yes".
 Meme Contest May the Fourth Celebrations
In April, we held the first ever Osiris Meme contest! The rules were
simple, you could only submit one and it had to be Osiris/NS related. Here are the
results!

Second Place:
Wymondham

In honor of May the Fourth, Osiris had a Star Wars themed

avatar contest. Citizens voted for their favorites and we ended up
with a two way tie.

Sarah Bread

First Place:
Ham
Dr. Pelican

Congrats to Sarah and Dr. Pelican for winning the avatar

 
contest! Thank you to everyone who participated, you all are
 
Congratulations to Ham for winning the Meme Contest. We appreciate amazing and citizen activity is one of the highlights of our region.
everyone who participated! That it for this month, folks, see you in our next issue!

P.S Elsa will be coming back next month!