OpenGeofiction
Hello all,
After my discussion about language in my last post I asked the admins if I would be able to move my nation from southern Archanta to NW Uletha for reasons of historical, linguistic and cultural continuity.
The very kind Luciano has agreed to move Mercia this weekend to a spot 100km off the coast of Ingerland and Scandmark and deal with the scaling issues that come with moving a country so far north.
I have decided now would be a good time to change the name of my capital from Elmham to (the more pleasing) Dunwic. I have edited the Wiki and I will edit the mentions on the map at some point this evening.
I am looking forward to making connections with my new Ulethan neighbours and to writing more history and culture for my little island nation.
- Adam
Discussion
Comment from joschi81 on 11 December 2015 at 11:17
Cool. I’m looking forward to have such an interesting island country as yours not far from Kalm! :)
Comment from Myrcia on 11 December 2015 at 11:35
@joschi81 - Thanks, I am really excited to make some geo-political, trade and transport links with countries in that area. When I’ve been moved officially I’ll get in touch about getting that started.
Comment from deltanz on 11 December 2015 at 11:46
Sad to see one more country leave southern Archanta, but good luck nonetheless.
Comment from Myrcia on 11 December 2015 at 11:47
@deltanz Yes, I am sorry to be leaving. I think Neo Delta is a great nation and deserves more neighbours but unfortunately I just did not belong in that part of the world. Best of luck to you too!
Comment from bhj867 on 11 December 2015 at 22:44
This is a brilliant idea. I am excited to see how this pans out .Let me know if you need anything from me at all involving Pretany or otherwise. Good luck. :)
Comment from Oxalia on 12 December 2015 at 08:56
@Luciano:
It would be intresting if you could tell us briefly HOW you deal with the scaling issues.
Thanks!
Comment from Luciano on 12 December 2015 at 09:06
There is a built-in function in JOSM. Make a selection, hold down CTRL-ALT, and then you can drag the entire selection bigger and smaller.
So… when I move the island, first I benchmark some object’s size. In the case of Mercia, I used the runways at the airport. The main runway was 4.690 km at the old location. Afther move, before scaling, the runway was around 3500m. So then I selected the entire island (23000 nodes), and I drag it a little bit larger. I measure the runway. Hm… 3700. Do it again. 4100. Do it again. 4800. Too big. Drag it all a bit smaller. repeat, approximating in on the right size.
I finished at 4688m. That seemed close enough - the JOSM drag/rescale function isn’t very precise, and with so many nodes involved, it’s quite slow on my PC - drag… wait 2 minutes, test…
It’s not perfect, but it can get you pretty close to the desired result.
Comment from Pawl on 12 December 2015 at 09:10
Welcome to NW Uletha! Wesmandy is also a Ulethan Ingerish-speaking country, having been taken over by Ingerish-led “Knight Venturers” in the 13th century. Perhaps we can develop some common history (e.g. maybe some of the Knight Venturers came from Mercia, rather than Ingerland)?
I like the change to Dunwic. Personally, I would have avoided real-world names for my country and regions too, i.e. Mercia, Anglia and Wessex.
Comment from Myrcia on 12 December 2015 at 09:15
@Pawl I will certainly read through your history and see what can work. I will think about changing the names of my states, I’m not going to change the name of the country though as I think Mercia works quite well. Perhaps I should have been more inventive from the start instead of cribbing from the Anglo-Saxons.
Comment from isleño on 14 December 2015 at 08:37
Re the name: “Mercia” wouldn’t be a familiar name to most people in the US, so there’s no problem on this side of the pond, but… if the name is very well known in Britain then you may want to consider a slight spelling change at least, like “Mercea” or “Mersia” or something. Of course you’re free to keep it as is, too. Anyway congrats on the move. :-)
Comment from Myrcia on 14 December 2015 at 09:21
@isleño I don’t think it’s that well known really. It was an ancient Anglo Saxon Kingdom but unlike Sussex or East Anglia the name never really came into common usage to describe an area of the country. The only modern-day use is in the West Mercia Police Force which covers Shropshire and Herefordshire.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercia#Modern_uses_of_the_term_.27Mercia.27
Comment from Pawl on 14 December 2015 at 20:22
According to that Wikipedia article, “Mercia”/”Mercian” is also used today in the names of two British Army regiments, a regional football league and quite a few companies and voluntary organizations in the area, so I’m guessing it’s fairly well known there, even if not elsewhere in England.
“Mercia” is a Latinization : the Anglo-Saxon name was “Myrce” or “Mierce”, with “Myrcna” / “Miercna” for “Mercians”. Perhaps “Myrcia” would sound almost the same but be closer to the original?