MARNIE Archives 2016 First Half

This page holds archived editions of the MARNIE newspaper which is published on every first of a month. The Archive contains up to the prior-to-current issue, and links are clickable despite what the Editor's Notes of the paper editions say. In order to keep the reading content manageable, each page will combine half a year's editions.


Midgard's Alpha Realm News
International Edition
February 8th, 2016

Editor's Note:
Pictures can be viewed at https://dev-urandom.eu/_media/books:newspaper_pictures:???.png when exchanging '???' with the photo number given in the articles. Other links lead to this server's wiki.

In Worldwide News:
Spawn Fishing, page 10

In Regional News:
Valensiyan Whim, page 23

In Local News:
AMUN Paper Press, page 28

Worldwide News

Downgrading of Newspaper
(mm) Due to the receding number of regular residents, language barriers and a general lack of willingness to comment to reporters, after difficult deliberation AMUN Publishing decided to downgrade the Midgard's Alpha Realm Newspaper, English Edition - known as MARNIE for short, to its original format as was once stated in our very first edition on June 1st in 2015.
In line with that verdict, this will be the last weekly issue of MARNIE. The next one will be published on March 1st, and after that on every 1st of a month, covering the events of the previous month. Correspondingly, the archive in the Autism Almanac too will be updated only once a month.
Should particularly interesting events come up, our editors agreed to publish special editions about such occasions promptly.

Tangaloa Takes a Break
(ek) Likely taking the lessened presence of veteran players as a good occasion, Creator Tangaloa of Elkkuton informed last Sunday, “I'm probably going to take a break from MC for a while because of lack of autism spark and IRL things.”
He clearly stated that he did not plan to leave forever and would also still be around in the ether. So far, he is the only veteran who officially confirmed a planned absence and even explained his reasons.

Spawn Fishing
(ns) In the evening of February 1st, a MARNIE reporter was invited to join a small fishermen's group at the southwestern pool on the New Spawn Plaza. Due to a rare stretch of good weather, success mediocre, however due to the company, fun was exceptional.
Participating residents included TheNerd96, Sturmbannfuehrer, Grum, Moderator July, Claireteen, Hostes and Xcont, and snapshots of the spontaneous event have been compiled in photo 027.
While most fishermen peacefully focused on their task, rather unlucky Resident Hostes eventually resorted to trying to steal the catches of others. When that didn't work, he even went so far as to attack fishermen with his fishing rod in a weak attempt to steal their loot.
After being disciplined the same way by some of them and slapped around a bit as a warning by Moderator July, he relented and chose to watch more closely before giving his own fledging efforts another try and finally managing a catch.

Bratka Sign
(ar) Commemorating the recent onslaught of grievances caused by a terrorist widely known as 'Bratka' (although he uses many different disguises), a monument was erected at the northern rim of the world.
As it reminded of statues created by Resident TheNerd96, he was asked whether he built this also, and confirmed with the explanation that it depicted “a recent meme”. In huge Cyrillic letters stamped onto the edge field with brown wool, the three lines read translated, 'Bratka is a good place for your dick.' Photo 028 shows an aerial view of this particular border marker around the coordinates X5900/Z-4050.

West Cross Named
(zk) On the northwest corner of Alpha's Realm, Russian immigrants have quickly expanded not only their territories on land, but taken sovereign power over wide stretches of the ocean with several finished, started and planned projects.
When asked about a name for the territory or settlement, Resident Grum answered they had not yet thought about it. It was suggested to him to use the translated and transcribed version of 'West(ern) Cross', which he provided as Zapadnyi Krest.
Resident Grum, who seems to be the de-facto leader of the northwestern group, stated that it was all right to refer to his settlement and its surrounding area by that name for the time being.

Regional News

High-rise Demolition
(fc/mm) On February 1st, Resident Hostes of Fortress Camelot informed that he no longer liked the “skyscraper” he wished to build at his home but also did not plan to leave it standing half-done. “I thought it would be a great building. But it turned out to be just another grey box. I'll get it removed very soon.” He offered to pay in diamonds for someone to take it down and was taken up on it by Midgard Municipality.
A team of demolishers was sent over to take down the frame of the high-rise by hand, a job swiftly finished overnight (see photo 029) while the landowner guarded against hostiles and started a street. The cleanup was compensated with 1 diamond per floor.

Valensiyan Whim
(vy) When told about the non-progress of the New Spawn Mall, a project instigated by Grand Duke Tomoko of the Grand Duchy of Hohenfels and started by Speaker BearMonger of the Republic of Ender last December, on a whim Chief Tsaryu of the Commons of Valensiya mentioned interest in possibly applying to take over the constructions, if only to guarantee the Commons of Valensiya their desired store plot in the building.
He first wished to better inspect the layout and has to date not yet taken the idea to the officials responsible for supplying building materials.

Sorra on Hold
(ds) Duke June of the United Duchy of the Two Sorras informed upon request that the reason for the delay of East Sorra's completion was that he currently is “building my new house on a remote island. My storage is a mess, so I'm building a new one.” After he finishes the new storage building, Duke June plans to continue the restauration of East Sorra.

Local News

AMUN Paper Press
(mm) During the past week, many Midgardian residents offered to help with the research on redstone mechanisms by tirelessly poring over written reports, designs, moving pictures and visiting various sites to inspect such workings in person and document them.
Coordinating and combining these efforts and results was Intern Elth, who also managed - through trial and error - to build the desired machine based on the discovered mechanisms. The first paper press in Alpha's Realm was installed in the new AMUN Publishing Company's headquarters' west wing on February 1st, upgraded with a sugar cane production unit on February 3rd and put into operation the next day.
For his efforts, Intern Elth received the promotion to Engineer with duties including the creation, maintenance and gradual upgrading of machines in Midgard Municipality, while also visiting sites all over Alpha's Realm in order to learn ever more.



Midgard's Alpha Realm News
International Edition
March 1st, 2016

Editor's Note:
Pictures can be viewed at https://dev-urandom.eu/_media/books:newspaper_pictures:???.png when exchanging '???' with the photo number given in the articles. Other links lead to this server's wiki.

In Worldwide News:
Blown-up Spawn, page 29

In Regional News:
Doran Villages, page 43

In Local News:
Pillar and Dome, page 49

Worldwide News

Free Chests at Spawn Plaza
(ns) After the New Spawn plaza was cleared of Christmas decorations and New Year's remnants, the freed up space was used to set up some chests for dumping and distributing food and materials free of charge on February 10th.
The measure was taken mostly in order to assist immigrants and poor new residents, especially those who do not speak Autistic and cannot follow guidance instructions to the library, where similar chests had been provided since the founding of New Spawn.
While there were few residents willing and able to stock up the chests - compared to well-settled ones taking from them, the system proofed itself to be widely accepted and working so far.
Beside food and building material, free armor and weapons were offered to new players. This might be considered a risk in terms of arming aggressive invaders, however a calculated one: Immigrants who immediately use weapons to attack residents are more quickly identified as miscreants unwilling to follow our realm's rules, and thus can be punished and/or eliminated sooner. The actual thought behind providing weaponry and armor was to allow immigrants to travel away from the densely settled New Spawn area without assistance and hunt their own food.
On February 27th, Grand Duke Tomoko of the Grand Duchy of Hohenfels suggested a cleaner layout with more chests available, and the setup was adapted to better match the south half of the spawn plaza.

Alpha Prima
(ap) On February 13th, Resident HindIII returned after several months of absence. After admitting he was personally unfamiliar with former Chelonians and did not wish to join their settlements, he was asked what kind of terrain he would prefer for his settlement and chose to move to the area of Explorers' Gate 05. He stated two friends would join him there later, one of whom (Resident Krist92) named the place Alpha Prima two days later, and started a traditional castle.

Announcement of Retirement
(ar) Moderator P_P_A shocked both God AlphaBernd and Alpha's Realm residents by announcing early retirement plans on February 14th. “You'll have to recruit new moderators before long,” he advised God, “I too will be gone soon.”
When questioned about his reasons, he stated sadly that almost none of the people he used to interact with the most were around anymore. He also expressed his dissatisfaction with Alpha's Realm's geography and divine exceptions and/or random interventions. “There's just no point to it anymore,” he concluded.
Various residents' attempts to make him reconsider his decision soon led to a general discussion about Alpha's Realm's politics, in which many shared his opinions.

Mall Progress
(ns) Chief Tsaryu of the Commons of Valensiya put into action his plan to take over the construction of the New Spawn mall on February 11th. With quartz provided by Moderator Koduck, he continued the project, sticking to the layout as far as he deemed logical and adapting parts he considered flawed.
On February 14th, he was assisted by Moderator P_P_A in reinforcing a ceiling and was granted the ability to fly by God AlphaBernd for one evening, in exchange for losing all other command powers during that time.
The very next day, Speaker BearMonger of the Republic of Ender returned to his project and ferociously complained about the changes. “Tsaryu is griefing my mall,” he stated enraged. “I am trying to work on it and he keeps building random shit in it.”
When Speaker BearMonger was informed that Chief Tsaryu had acted with the permissions of God AlphaBernd, Moderators P_P_A and Koduck and project instigator Grand Duke Tomoko of the Grand Duchy of Hohenfels, he replied, “I don't care about his permissions. This is my project and I intend to finish it.”
A little calmer, he continued, “I can understand, I wasn't on for a few weeks, people wanted the mall finished. [However,] Tsaryu is currently sabotaging my work. I have a blueprint I am working off of.”
Overhearing the commotion, Moderator P_P_A joined the scene and was soon confronted about helping in 'sabotaging'. Since Chief Tsaryu had acted with permission from God AlphaBernd, Moderator P_P_A hesitated in restoring the previous state of the project, and resignedly Speaker BearMonger started manually repairing the changes.
Meanwhile, Chief Tsaryu had been informed about the situation and was quick to arrive and consent to having his changes undone, which Moderator P_P_A immediately carried out. Grand Duke Tomoko then questioned point-blank, “Are you actually going to finish the mall, though?” to which Speaker BearMonger solemnly replied, “Yes, I will.”
As can be seen on photo 030, two thirds of the outer structure have been completed since then.

Easy Suicide Abolished
(ar) On February 23rd, residents discovered by chance that it is no longer possible to commit easy suicide using the magical spell /kill. It is unclear when exactly the practice was abolished or for what reasons, or whether it will be reinstated in time. In the meantime, several residents have gotten creative, and one of the most popular ways to suicide seems to be shooting an arrow straight upward.

End Farm Cleanup
(te) In the afternoon of February 23rd, Moderator June took up the task of cleaning up the public XP-Farm in The End. He relocated the two remaining private chests and also generously provided eight anvils for immediate repairs.

Planned Nation
(ur) The area referred to as 'Russian Walls' in a November article last year has seen renewed activity this month with its founders returning. In particular Resident Nick4629 mentioned vague plans to even found a proper nation, but cited laziness to embark on the bureaucratic aspect of such a decision as the main reason for not implementing the idea immediately. The walled village was successfully repopulated.

Blown-up Spawn
(ns) Captured on photo 031 is this month's 'Blow Up New Spawn' event which followed a 'Fun 'Til It Ain't' all-out battle between Moderator Mazznoff and several residents. Apparently in support of his comrades, near the end of the fighting Residents Primera and Gnfur provided the TNT which later obliterated the spawn plaza and placed it to that effect. After the detonation, Moderator GlitchyBat was called upon to repair the damage, to which he responded quickly and competently. He also awarded Resident Primera a three-day and Resident Gnfur a two-day prison sentence for his antics. Unpunished remained Resident Tremolo, who Resident Primera claimed was the actual person triggering the TNT he had placed, a statement that could not be verified. Resident Primera did not complain about his sentence though, and instead proudly claimed that he had no regrets about the event or its consequences.
Attacks on Mercymnius
(mc) In mid-February, Mercymnius faced two invasions and attacks by citizens of Sacred Solntze-Grad. On the 18th, Emissario Paper reported severe theft from his nation's farms, evidently committed by Resident Gnfur. In a later statement, he declared, “It was just an incident,” and that he did not wish to go to war over it, especially since said incident spurred improvements and trade options in Mercymnius.
However, only four days later Solntze- grad citizen Grizikfed was discovered “griefing entire BellTower” by Resident NologicGamer and did not respond to any communication. From home, Resident Gnfur gave Resident NoLogicGamer permission to kill the invader who then fled in time.
Moderator June who was called to the scene confirmed resident Gnfur's observation that all the chests that had been 'stolen' from were actually unlocked and advised the Italian about proper security measures.
Due to not replanting the farms, Resident Grizikfed later received a short prison sentence for 'extensive theft'. A few day after the second incident, Emissario Paper who had been quite amiable toward Resident Gnfur, heatedly requested a lifelong prison sentence for Resident Grizikfed despite similar circumstances, in favor of having to go to war with his nation. However, he did not explain exactly why the second attack angered him so much more than the first.

Regional News

New Neighbor
(zy) To the northeast of Zweiyurten, Immigrant Ners_ebower started building a basic wooden shelter on February 21st. During the past week, no progress could be observed on the unfinished building, and as its creator did not return since the 22nd, it is currently unclear whether he intends to stay in that area or move on to a more mountainous terrain which he first claimed to favor.

Goldstag Hall
(sf) After demolishing the unfinished station building in Skellie Farm's capital Skellsborough back in January, its founder Duke Speermen announced his - at least temporary - retreat from the town, in favor of building a manor close to his original settlement Zweiyurten.
He undertook the construction around February 18th and named the handsome estate north of the small settlement Goldstag Hall. Both the house and its garden are a work in progress to date.

Doran Villages
(dv) At the coast of the northeastern-most bay of the Northeastern Sea, two small settlements were recently discovered by Midgardian explorers. As their architecture already suggested, it was quickly confirmed to be settlements created by Resident Dora, likely on his way through from the Chicken Islands of former Slavia Confederation to where he later established Dorville.
Staying with the approved name, the smaller settlements (which can fastest be reached by boat at this time) were named Dorpost and Dorstep. Further inland situated Dorstep features a public skeleton farm, and Dorpost excels with some creative interior design.

City of Camelot
(fc) Resident Hostes of the former Fortress Camelot recently decided to name the replacing city simply Camelot as well. On February 27th, the first resident moved into town on his own accord, and soon after the territory was expanded far into the ocean. The city's founder Resident Hostes wishes to “build a park” featuring square borders and is currently filling its ground level above the ocean surface.

Edna's Skyfarm
(ur) Another new neighbor around the Northeastern Sea is recently returned Resident EdnaMintsauce, who created a floating farm high in the sky a little north of Dorpost around mid-February, with the roof at level Y241.

Local News

Pillar and Dome
(mm) Concentrated efforts during the past three weeks resulted in the completed construction of the outer frame of the Pillar of Midgard, as well as its four main support beams which hold up the domed roof around the access building - and stabilize the surface of the island as a whole.
The excavation of a wider circle around the pillar is still ongoing but calculated to be finished within another week.



Midgard's Alpha Realm News
International Edition
April 1st, 2016

Editor's Note:
Pictures can be viewed at https://dev-urandom.eu/_media/books:newspaper_pictures:???.png when exchanging '???' with the photo number given in the articles. Other links lead to this server's wiki.

In Worldwide News:
Supreme Strife, page 29

In Regional News:
Lauranya Heights, page 43

In Local News:
Spawn Grid, page 48

Worldwide News

March 11th Report
(mm) Due to the length of the articles covering the memorable events of March 11th, AMUN Publishing decided to print a Special Edition. Detailed reports can be read in MARNIE Sped#03.

Overhaul Disarray And Quick Fixes
(ar) On March 5th's evening, the physics laws of Alpha's Realm were overhauled, causing many changes in mechanics and behavior, and also a few glitches. Most notably, the primary XP-Farm in The End was disabled, and all deployed boats and carts vanished from existence, the latter leading to disruptions in various farms' collection systems. The Iron Farm was also affected with heightened acceleration in the glass elevator disabling proper dispensing into the water conveyor on top.
Only three days after the overhaul and subsequent conquest of The End, Resident Gowa66 used his looted resources to start on the creation of a new Endermen Farm. He placed it to the northeast of the main island, easily visible and reachable, and finished the construction only two days later.
In design, the new XP-Farm is practical and Spartan and not entirely safe, and care is advised if the visitor gets too close to the water walls. Some views are shown in photo 032.
Meanwhile overworld, after a week of various trials, Resident TheNerd96 was able to adapt the Iron Farm transport system by installing a dropper chain in place of the glass elevator, on March 14th, putting the main source for iron in Alpha's Realm back into business again.
Privately owned farms may need to be adapted in similar ways, and collection systems must be restarted by replacing carts. It was also reported that some random hoppers had stopped working, leading to pipeline congestions not easily discovered in some cases. In some systems, the entire pipeline had to be re-installed, on others only one or two hoppers needed an unlock-update.

Landmark Renamed
(ic) In the second week of March, Residents Acid_Trance and Magnus_Boy agreed to an interview and tour of their landmark, which had formerly been given the temporary designation 'Hollow Nail' due to a lack of comments by its creator.
When asked about a more fitting name, main creator Acid_Trance suggested 'Edge of the World Castle' or 'Dead Land' (the latter of which was used in renaming the corresponding page in the Autism Almanac) but admitted he was “no good at naming things.” His colleague Magnus_Boy later came up with the name 'Inferno Castle', which its creator heartily agreed was the better option.
Around mid-March, the new northern netherrail line, which had been established by Residents FeuerFischer and Wolleman in February in order to directly connect their settlement Sitzfleisch to New Spawn, was extended by the owners of Inferno Castle, allowing the landmark to be visited by tourists more comfortably.
Resident Acid_Trance also mentioned vague plans of creating a waterway to the Alderan Sea and intending to have the top of the tower (which reaches to level Y254) eventually become a small park “like Eden or something like that.” This highest park in Alpha's Realm can currently only be reached by swimming up a waterfall.
However, near the end of last month Resident Acid_Trance explained that both owners would move to Omega for the time being, and all mentioned plans are currently and indefinitely on hold.

Bratka's Deception
(ar) On March 2nd, Immigrant Pipetka asked residents to “pvp with me” right after joining Alpha's Realm. Few residents were present at that time, and none had the time or intention to grant his request, so he was politely refused and seemed to accept the dismissal.
Half an hour later, he attacked Resident Claireteen who'd just arrived at Spawn Plaza and stole his stuff. While still pretending to be willing to return it, he actually led his victim on a merry chase, gave part of his loot to unknowing arrivals and then repeatedly killed Resident Claireteen who had given up on the “immature” chase.
Resident TheNerd96, who tried to intervene in the spawnkilling and managed to get killed and robbed himself, called upon Moderator P_P_A, a.k.a. the current Bratka expert, who sentenced Immigrant Pipetka to one day in prison for 'Illegal PvP'. Immediately thereafter, Pipetka broke out and re-emerged under the alias 'Cracker', revealing himself to be well-versed makeup artist Bratka: He was discovered due to raised suspicion and sent back to prison. The pattern repeated several times until Resident TheNerd96 came up with an idea to lock up the culprit for good. Moderator P_P_A implemented a procedure called 'rangeban', preventing known Assassin Bratka from easily disguising himself and returning to our realm.
As a side-effect, some other Russian Residents now need to get whitelisted in order to join, as demonstrated by Resident GnFur's alter ego GnPur.

Strike For Modship
(ar) Following the examples of the shopkeepers, Moderator P_P_A declared himself on strike as of March 7th “until [God] Alpha[Bernd] meets either of my demands, which is either to nominate at least one new mod, or to at least make it so that death chests are locked and can only be opened by the person who died.”
The latter condition was spurred by the various Bratka incidents in which residents were killed, their chests looted and their weapons or tools used to kill even more people, causing a near perpetual need for supervision by a moderator, none of whom actually remained active in Alpha's Realm.
God AlphaBernd implemented a compromise that locks cenotaphs in Alpha's Realm for thirty minutes and erases them after double that time. He also nominated Chief Tsaryu of the Commons of Valensiya as new moderator that same evening.
Chief Tsaryu later disclosed that he had been approached about that twice before, and declined, but saw the need to accept on that Monday evening since most others had moved to a parallel world. He debuted the next night during another Bratka visit, and generally demonstrates a strong sense for ordnung.

Supreme Strife
(ns) Early last month, a giant sign reading 'SUPREME' in white letters on red wool, was discovered hovering above the eastern New Spawn area. According to first information by Moderator June, it had been created by Resident Hostes of Camelot on March 1st.
In the evening of the following day, Resident GnFur proudly announced, “Fixed Hostes's giant sign on Spawn. There were some missing words.” Inspection of the change showed that within the original sign, in smaller letters the words 'Hostes is a faggot' had been added. The difference can best be compared on photo 033.
An hour later, Resident Hostes awoke in Alpha's Realm and noticed the modification. Within minutes, he attacked and killed Resident Primera who happened to be around New Spawn at the time and comment on the sign. Resident Primera retaliated in kind, causing a brief battle between the two. Despite two witnesses confirming that the culprit had been Resident GnFur, Resident Hostes gleefully continued his attacks and died for it more often than not, before he took to griefing Resident GnFur's home country Sacred Solntze-grad in retaliation, which was defended by Master Paladin Massolit who also informed Moderator P_P_A about the situation. For the extensive griefing and killing of villagers and livestock, Resident Hostes received a one-week prison sentence. Sacred Solntze-grad received compensation in form of spawn eggs, but the sign above New Spawn remained untouched.
On March 3rd, Resident TheNerd96 saw fit to make another, more vulgar addition to the sign while also mangling its original clean look, by adding the even smaller line 'and sucks his own dick'. Seeing Administrator Jinxauthor_Mel of Midgard Municipality start cleaning the next day, Moderator P_P_A decided to remove the sign.

Shopkeepers Back
(ar) After Moderator GlitchyBat had advised that, while the original shopkeepers were still on strike, new shopkeepers could be employed, some residents set out to do just that. Before too much could be accomplished in vain, God AlphaBernd stepped in on March 12th and persuaded the former employees to cease their strike and come back to work. Most vendors returned with their memories intact, with only the occasional bout of stress amnesia.

Grum's Legacy
(zk/ne) In late March, Resident Grum decided to move to a parallel world and allowed fellow residents to take whatever they found (useful) from Zapadnyi Krest. Only Prime Minister Salah of Umm Al Asufli took him up on the offer and went for a lengthy looting adventure before he, too, would move.
However, Resident Grum's most noteworthy contributions to Alpha's Realm are not stacked in chests. Before he left, he finished the construction of a giant public guardian farm to the north of his settlement, and much longer ago he had created a public XP- and gold farm in the nether, reachable from Zapadnyi Krest's portal. He also okayed a future connection to the netherrail network to make the sites more accessible.

Divine Chances
(ns) On March 29th, once again withers were detected at New Spawn. A short inquiry resulted in the information that the culprit was, once again, Resident Primera, who had received divine pardon.
According to Moderator GlitchyBat, God AlphaBernd “said if he looked at a block the wrong way, he'd be perma'd again. Naturally, he looked at a block wrong again,” resulting it several withers haunting the area for a few hours and another life sentence for Resident Primera.

Regional News

Lauranya Heights
(ln) The Valensiyan island Lauranya saw a lot of development during March. In the first week, the cozy tavern Zur Abendsonne was finished across from the station, and in the following week a library rose next to it.
The House of Books sports a wide selection of literature on four floors, as well as quiet reading corners and the Valensiyan trademark relaxing roof garden.

Zapping Farm
(zp) On March 5th, Resident Zapp visited his island and stated upon remark upon his underground complex that he intends to build a general mobfarm in the area.

Zweiyurten Station
(zy) The first week of March saw the Zweiyurten Station completed, fit with proper lighting and decoration, as well as a nether portal. In the nether, a road connects the small village to Skellsborough Station, and overworld paved paths lead from Zweiyurten station to the village center and Goldstag Hall, allowing settlers to more easily reach the eastern plains of Snowbelt Continent.

Local News

Spawn Grid
(mm) During most of March Midgard Municipality devoted all its resources, time and labor to the completion of the street grid around New Spawn, as well as establishing roads from there to the Iron Farm and Second Spawn and a metro station for overworld lines, in accordance with Moderator Koduck's wishes. The metro station currently houses lines to Second Spawn and Nova Bydlograd, with one stop in Sacred Solntze-grad.



Midgard's Alpha Realm News
Special Edition
Number 03

Editor's Note:
This issue is an extension of the 'Worldwide News' part of Edition 01.04.16 covering exclusively the events of March 11th.

In Worldwide News:

Withering Spawn, page 4

Bannenings, page 15

Combat Trials, page 21

Withering Spawn
(ns) Utterly off his rocker went Resident Primera on March 11th. Having discovered a loophole in the recently overhauled physics laws, he exploited the change in hostile behavior for duplicating items. In particular, he incited fellow Residents Benin, FeuerFischer, Koinucian and GnFur to fight wither skeletons in the nether and loot their heads for him, then used those and kept doubling them to undisclosed numbers.
His original purpose seems to have been the easy creation of nether stars, for he intended to create and kill withers in the appropriate killing room in the Nether. However, for unknown reasons they did not come into existence there, frustrating Resident Primera into the decision to try it in the overworld.
He chose New Spawn as the location to do so and incited his fellow fighters to create some themselves, covering up his own culpability and hiding from his allies the number of withers he kept bringing into existence under, on and around Spawn Plaza.
Half past six, Resident GnFur reported “5 withers at Spawn”, immediately corrected by Resident FeuerFischer's “10!”
New Moderator Tsaryu arrived at Spawn around ten minutes after being informed about the situation and investigated who spawned them. Resident FeuerFischer proudly informed that “after 1 was down … 10 more were spawned.” Evidence of Resident Primera actually creating ten withers at once, as seen in photo 034, was handed over to Moderator Tsaryu, who immediately penalized the culprit with a three-day prison sentence.
However, even with the creator behind bars, his thugs kept on wreaking havoc around Spawn Plaza, captured on photo 035, and the small fry that had previously been hiding in fear, as shown on photo 036, decided to ally with the big fish upon nightfall.
From prison, Resident Primera boasted, “I spawned 10 under Spawn, and 10 near Starbats.” A snapshot (also on photo 034) provided by his comrade Resident FeuerFischer show him also creating the ten original ones, bringing the count up to thirty and causing Moderator Tsaryu to raise Resident Primera's sentence to two weeks in prison.
Despite Moderators P_P_A and GlitchyBat joining him in trying to eliminate the hostiles, those proved difficult to destroy. Prayers were sent to God AlphaBernd while the moderators established emergency measures that would continually repair the damage they kept causing, some of which can be seen on photo 037.
Shortly after seven, God AlphaBernd bestowed killing rights upon moderators; however their spell did not work on the withers. It took divine intervention to banish all withers from Alpha's Realm, and a few more minutes repairing the rest of the damage, particularly underground.

Bannenings
(ns) When God AlphaBernd joined the ether around three hours after the wither incident, Resident Primera pleaded for a reduced sentence from prison. God AlphaBernd, who had formerly deemed the two-week sentence “a good time”, offered to reduce it to five days because he thought him to be “a first time offender.” When God AlphaBernd was informed that Resident Primera had been banned for blowing up Spawn Plaza with TNT on February 22nd, he retracted the offer.
Due to the negotiation, it also came to light that Resident Primera was at the time in AlphaRealm under the disguise 'Nissan'.
He tried to prove that while he had placed the mentioned TNT, someone else had actually activated it. When Midgard reporter Thor investigated the scene 'Nissan' indicated, he was twice fatally shot in the back by the disguised terrorist.
Since he clearly did not intend to enjoy his prison break peacefully, Moderator P_P_A was informed about the circumstance and proceeded to take the 'Nissan' disguise out of commission for thirty days.
For unknown reasons, imprisoned Resident Primera started taunting God AlphaBernd at that point, boasting about having killed God's horse, which had been kept in a mostly safe vault stable. He went into extreme detail about jimmying the lighting fixtures about a month prior (confirmed by Moderator P_P_A), as well as other ways anyone could have gotten at the steed, inciting God AlpaBernd to change his prison sentence to life.

Combat Trials
(ns) On March 11th, Grand Admiral Austrocat of the Nautic Syndicate asked for someone to spar with him, wishing to test the newly invented combat system. He was first taken up on the request by Constable Nitu of Midgard Municipality who was also interested in learning dual-wield techniques, shield-handling and altered weapon properties.
The duels were held with a sword and a shield, and no armor on either side, and it was first discovered that the sound of the shield being hit can only be heard by the defender, leaving the attacker in the dark as to whether he hit or missed. However, when actual injuries are caused, the attacker will receive visual confirmation of damage inflicted, as shown on photo 038.
After the sword action, Grand Admiral Austrocat used ax attacks in order to compare the effect, quickly learning there was almost twice as much damage when unprotected. However, the promoted shield-canceling effect could not be achieved.
Count P_P_A of Klamdorf then joined the sparring with particular interest in the cooldown effect on weapons, tools and shields, which led to the discovery that the so-called 'cancel' effect on shields actually is such a cooldown and can only be caused by a direct ax hit on it.
With some archery practice on Count P_P_A and Grand Admiral Austrocat, Constable Nitu demonstrated that while arrows can be deflected by shields when the shield is raised in the appropriate direction, careful aiming - particularly at feet, or at the sides while strafing - can still hit a target even with the shield raised.
Upon a request by Count P_P_A, Grand Admiral Austrocat tested the Thorns enchantment on a shield, which at the very least had no effect on archers. His next step was to try out the elytra for battle applications, some shots of which are captured on photo 039. He noted that if you're on a raised position with regard to your target, it can be reached much faster and without receiving fall damage, “so tactical paratrooping would be possible.” Count P_P_A cautioned that “you sacrifice the [chest] armor slot though,” meaning you can more easily be shot down by ground archers.
During the sparring, it was discovered that various food causes different healing rates and “you really burn through food pretty quickly while fighting,” as Count P_P_A summarized. It was also demonstrated by Constable Nitu that - with patience - absentminded individuals can be pushed off roofs or cliffs.
A short exploration of tools' battle abilities followed, but shovels, hoes and fishing rods quickly got dismissed as useless. Flint and Steel holds possibilities in close combat but comes with the risk of being set afire oneself when the enemy rushes you.
At that point, Count P_P_A invited Residents Grum and Claireteen to join the sparring on the rooftop of Duke Zoythrus' trading hall, both of them in full diamond armor and with enchanted diamond swords, captured on photo 040. “I wanted to see how long I'd survive with no armor and iron weapons against full dia,” he explained. Indeed, the three unarmored fighters managed to take down the diamond duo at first. Constable Nitu used the opportunity to have well-armored targets to test out dual wielding, proving rather effective with a bow in the off and a sword in the main hand.
Once the Diamond Duo got used to the sparring environment and pace and also started using their off-hand, they quickly emerged victorious over the three stragglers, reminding that in battle, nothing much tops good armor.



Midgard's Alpha Realm News
International Edition
May 1st, 2016

Editor's Note:
Pictures can be viewed at https://dev-urandom.eu/_media/books:newspaper_pictures:???.png when exchanging '???' with the photo number given in the articles. Other links lead to this server's wiki.

In Worldwide News:
Set of Rules, page 19

In Regional News:
Lolifarm Repaired, page 24

In Local News:
DACU Company, page 26

Worldwide News

Spawn City
(ns) After the last road was paved late at night on March 31st, the New Spawn area - now named Spawn City - officially went into business on April 1st 2016.
When originally created, Spawn City was meant to become a business district. This is still the ultimate goal; however due to those residents who actually have stuff to sell and trade now more active on Omega, a different purpose recently emerged.
Currently, the plots of Spawn City serve as stepping stones for immigrants, particularly players entirely new to Minecraft. They can chose a plot and use materials provided in the free chests to start out until they're ready to explore and settle further out. At that point, it is hoped they will remodel their original home in Spawn City into a store, but that choice is optional.
Spawn City is comprised of 90 plots in various sizes, only one quarter of which are currently built on.
Among those 25 plots, an Admin Office, Post Office, Clinic and Hotel are some of the buildings for public use. Others house stores, museums and many incomplete projects. Few were settled on by immigrants so far, but the city shows a steady, if slow, growth, affirming the hopes of its creators.

Street Maps
(ns) Since Spawn City is spread over a four hundred by five hundred block area crisscrossed by forty three streets, a large map was drawn and exhibited right at the Spawn Plaza, in front of the Free Chests. It faces the actual direction of the map orientation and shall allow visitors and immigrants to easier decide on a direction to venture first. For weather and griefer safety, the map has been entirely encased, and for lesser glare and better visibility, black glass panes were chosen for the front.
The first version was installed on April 2nd and has been griefed various times since then, but after the offenders were strictly punished, the attacks declined. During this month, the map was updated twice and will regularly be redrawn when more residents built on the as yet free plots.

MallMart Opened
(ns) After former Speaker BearMonger of the former Republic of Ender outspokenly declared - from Omega, where he moved to with others from his nation - that he would likely never finish the mall building of Alpha's Realm, but also forbade anyone else taking up the abandoned project, Chief Tsaryu of the Commons of Valensiya was approached about the creation of a smaller mall closer to Spawn Plaza.
Recognizing the need for temporary store lots where sellers need not build a house first but also don't use a whole plot for one chest in the ground, Chief Tsaryu designed a three-story building which could be raised higher should the need ever arise.
On April 2nd, he started and finished within fifteen hours building and interior design on the double plot which used to house the tree-hidden abandoned low-rise of Resident Tablecat, which had been deconstructed in accordance with the Spawn City rules the day before. The mall is situated right on Mall Street and can actually be walked through from both sides of that street. It features, besides fourteen large store lots, a comfortable waiting area, an instruction panel on setting up a shop, and an overview of all available stores on first sight.
Three days later, the outside hedges finished growing to their intended height, and a collage of views can be seen on photo 041.
On the message boards, signs were placed declaring the opening of the New Spawn mall named MallMart. The MallMart is not expected to be filled up by shops anytime soon but was provided for the future time when the need will arise among new residents.

Set of Rules
(ar) In order to preserve the image of a capital and prevent abuse, a set of rules pertaining only to Spawn City were implemented with the permission of God AlphaBernd.
Said rules were written out on the new page in the Autism Almanac set aside for Spawn City, which can be found at https://dev-urandom.eu/settlements:spawn_city.
Besides the 'Rules and Policies' section, the page offers a map of Spawn City showing its borders and street names as well as listing the locations of public institutions. For those curious about its history, a section with newspaper articles covering the most dramatic events surrounding Spawn City was added as well.
One of the most important rules to be heeded is likely NUSS, the No Unfinished Shit Stuff rule, which also concerns 'projects abandoned for over 60 days,' in which case plots may be cleared out with the permission and assistance of a moderator.

Regional News

Lolifarm Repaired
(ai/vy) After the World Overhaul left many installations defunct, Lolifarm as well was rendered useless for over a month. However, when informed about that circumstance, Chief Tsaryu of the Commons of Valensiya contacted Caliph Lolibernd Al Nuaim of Adschman Al-Ilol for permission to fix the - fortunately - unproblematic issue. Once obtained, he immediately repaired Lolifarm towards the end of April and sent it back into business.

Local News

DACU Company
(mm) During the establishment of the street grid in Spawn City in March 2016, various age-old abandoned ruins had to be either moved sideways or removed entirely, a process undertaken primarily by workers from the Midgard Municipality. On request by Resident Hostes, a similar task had been accomplished on February 1st this same year, and according to the rules established for Spawn City, a handful of plots were cleaned up in the same manner.
This prompted the overseers to establish a new Midgardian company, to be led by new Administration member Cleaner Orat. Using the acronym 'DACU' for 'Demolition And Clean-Up', the company officially went into business on April 1st 2016, although prior tasks will be considered part of its endeavors. The company is represented on the Autism Almanac page https://dev-urandom.eu/orders_and_guilds:guilds:dacu and is available for hire.

Safer Bunny Hutch
(mm) After the great efforts for Spawn City, many Midgardian teams went into vacation, and most others focused on excavating the ground around the Pillar of Midgard. For this reason, the only noteworthy project finished this month on our island is the Bunny Hutch, which was extended and lined with glass walls in order to prevent any future suffocations.
The same measures will be implemented in other pet areas, as well as an as yet unrevealed means of preventing the spawning of slimes in the three chunks recently discovered and spanning all livestock levels.



Midgard's Alpha Realm News
International Edition
June 1st, 2016

Editor's Note:
Pictures can be viewed at https://dev-urandom.eu/_media/books:newspaper_pictures:???.png when exchanging '???' with the photo number given in the articles. Other links lead to this server's wiki.

In Worldwide News:
Scrapyard Rail, page 10

In Regional News:
Oppai Islands, page 29

In Local News:
Villager Suspected of Shady Business, page 37

Worldwide News

Vault of the Vanished
(ns) According to the rules of Spawn City (NUSS), 'In case a plot is cleared, any personal effects and sales proceeds as well as the materials used in the building will be stored in the 'Vault for the Vanished' where players, should they ever return, will have access only to the chests with their own belongings.' Said storage building was constructed north of Vault Street on May 4th 2016, and finished the next day.
Its roof was covered in wool with the word 'VAULT' clearly visible from the bird's eye perspective so which maps can render the designation, allowing the building on the very northern tip of Spawn City to be easily identified on the map at Spawn Plaza.

Free Chests Free Again
(ns) Ever since the 'rangeban' procedure Moderator P_P_A had implemented in order to ward off the griefer known as 'Bratak', and especially with the emigration of many residents to Omega, the attacks on players have dwindled noticeably, in fact to almost nothing since this year's April.
Due to the feeling of safety which had thus been restored among the remaining residents, it was decided - with the approval of Moderator Tsaryu - that all the 'Free' Chests will be freed again, meaning that weapons, tools and armor no longer need to be distributed by trusted veterans. As of May 7th, any player can access the chests freely as had been intended upon their establishment.

Scrapyard Rail
(as) On May 27th, Resident Anhud disclosed the map position of one of his homes where he had built three pixelarts, on the western edge of the Ur jungle. He was provided information about the closest netherrail station, and accepted the offer to extend a line to his own portal.
Due to the change, the NEAR switch formerly termed 'Xpeh Tubes' without a portal was adapted into a proper portal station, leading to the jungle island east of the main jungle.
As had been requested by Duke June of the United Duchy of the Two Sorras, his pagoda portal is not easily accessible from either the station or the jungle portal.
Resident Anhud decided to name his jungle home Anhud's Scrapyard. Signs and maps have been updated accordingly. Later that night, Resident Anhud allowed Editor Jam of the Midgard Municipality to visit Scrapyard, where a disturbing but fun time of discovery began. A collage of the most interesting sights is compiled in photo 042.

Public Fields
(ns) After the dirt huts and holes had been cleared from the large plot south of Winston Clarke's home, the question arose whether to designate it a free one, part it with streets or use it for the public.
When Moderator Tsaryu was asked for his opinion, he agreed that a public field with all kinds of grown food would be a good idea, since otherwise all that existed in that regard so far were the 'BanBait Fields' at the plaza, more of a small wheat garden which often got raided (as had been intended).
In contrast, the bigger fields to the south, created on May 8th, have been secured against hostiles - unless one taunts spiders near the main gates at night - and raiding without replanting will be overlooked, as is stated on the sign at the entrance.
Willful destruction of the fence elements and ground is of course still considered a criminal offense, but so far, the fields providing nine kinds of food have been well received, and taken care of by nearby residents.

City Street Signs
(ns) May 10th saw the long-planned mounting of street signs on every corner of Spawn City's street grid.
Where possible, they were attached to existing structures on the northwestern plot corners, but in most cases, easily recognizable columns were set up for the time being. Naturally, in some cases different corners needed to be used due to the lack or inaccessibility of a northeastern one.
Residents who build structures on plots with columns are asked to either remove the column and place its signs on their building if that wall is no at most two blocks removed from the walkway, or leave the column standing otherwise.

Iron Farm Repairs
(if) After repeatedly reporting continued malfunctioning of the Iron Farm's recreated item elevator, Moderator Tsaryu was asked to the scene in order to get a more direct impression.
Thanks to the moderator's guidance and assistance, Engineer Elth of Midgard Municipality was able to identify the reason for the jamming in the sorter and remove the problem. while Engineer Elth then repaired some longtime damage on the main tower's upper level, Moderator Tsaryu went to check on every single tower, restoring the proper amount of villagers and bravely fighting about nine thousand Iron Golems who had been gathering due to a griefed water source and were both declining the general spawn rate in the area and leading to major lags.
As of May 17th, the Public Iron Farm is once again fully operational. Users are asked to also periodically clear out poppies (they may be thrown away if not needed) to prevent them from clogging up the pipelines.

City Growth
(ns) During the third week of May, three new residents have taken plots in the southern regions of Spawn City. Residents Anhud and Crni_Drachen decided to set up shops, with the former successfully doing so before shopkeepers went on short-time strikes again, and the latter quickly getting disappointed by their lack of cooperation.
On the plot of Resident Sturmbannfuehrer, more market stalls joined the first one, offering wool, appliances and costumes.

Regional News

Mystery Project
(vy) During the last month, Chief Tsaryu of the Commons of Valensiya announced a planned bigger project on Lauranya. He did not wish to disclose any details but mentioned that it would be immediately identifiable on the map once done.
Since the first mention, various jobs in moderator capacity have kept him busy, leading to a delay in the construction and a raise in mystery levels.

Oppai Islands (oi) The last week of May had a new resident wander into the northeastern region. On May 29th, Resident Variobond decided to settle offshore of Skellsborough where he intends to connect several islands. Said connection actually turned out to be an unsupported walkway on water level, extensively impeding boats as can be seen at https://map.dev-urandom.eu/#/4170/64/1260/-2/0/0 and on photo 043. Its single tiny bridge supposed to allow for boats' passing is practically unreachable, particularly for travelers from the south, and also unpassable without head bumps due to the new navigation system. Although Resident Variobond was informed about those misgivings, he seemed to wish to stick with his 'style'.
He explained his plans for the island group he named Oppai Islands, and said about the meaning of his creative and pretty flag, “The red dots are supposed to represent the island group.” Upon the idea to possibly claim Skellsborough which had been abandoned by its founder Resident Speermen he stated, “Nah, I like my little island group.”
With assistance from Midgardian builders, a nether portal was installed next to the mainland castle and connected to the Skellsborough station via walkway that same day.

Local News

Amun Street
(mm) As a break from the endless excavation, on May 15th the surface on Amun Island was finished with the resources left from the street grid construction in Spawn City. Further, a proper bridge was created and connected to the coast promenade via short new Amun Street, and all maps have been updated with the development.

Villager Suspected of Shady Business
(mm) During Resident Anhud's visit in Midgard Municipality on May 27th, he left two gates to residences and one door open, leading to the death of Reginald Sombutch. The first resident of Magtow Street is mourned by three family members; his demise discouraged others from living in the unsecured street.
Meanwhile, in Anddio Street 7, Quinn Cheasadd mysteriously managed to survive until Constable Nitu patrolled by his home the next day, while a gold armored zombie was rummaging around his home.
Upon trying to arrest the apparently disoriented zombie who was literally running around in circles, the hostile creature attacked and had to be eliminated, rendering the invader unable to be questioned.
Quinn Cheasadd was congratulated for his luck, but as he did not satisfactorily answer to Constable Nitu's questions about how he managed to survive, more and more he himself came to be under suspicion.
In his fridge, unknown brews were discovered and are currently being analyzed on the assumption that the foreign substance was used to unbalance the zombie.
Even so, since Quinn Cheasadd had not been in hiding and still been left unharmed, it is also speculated that the hostile is or was a partner in crime of the villager who himself had once been cured from deadness.
Due to a lack of proof, the suspicious villager has not yet been detained.



This issue ends the 2016 First Half page of the MARNIE Archives. The next issue will be posted on the 2016 Second Half page.

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