OpenGeofiction
Dear all, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Illiria invites you to provide a representation of your country in order to strenghten the billateral relations of your countries and ours.
Please, pick a place in Babel, our capital city to place the diplomatic representation of your country (embassy or consulate).
If you consider to place any other institution related to the promotion of your country (related to education, business, trade, tourism, etc.), please inform of your intentions previously on PM.
Sincerely,
Press Cabinet. Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Kingdom of Illiria
Discussion
Comment from zhenkang on 12 July 2018 at 13:14
Just to tell you not to adress as some minister of foreign affairs as this is not really play role (though I can tell it is out of fun). I did that once.
And I wish you name your capital after something else. Babel is a real place in the real world. And there is a Babelic language which will make things more complicated.
Comment from varnel_maiser on 12 July 2018 at 14:09
Other than that, I am completely fine with you putting a Bélicienne Embassy in your capital. I will not be able to do the same as my capital is currently not finished (or existent at all for that matter). Just message me if you make one so I can add it to my list.
I do suggest that you take a look at this list: https://wiki.opengeofiction.net/wiki/index.php/OGF:Embassies#Country_list
Thanks, Zekiel
Comment from andrepoiy on 12 July 2018 at 16:21
Illiria, a Twelfth Night reference?
If you want an embassy in my country, please contact me. If you wish to put a Capitalian embassy, go ahead, and just send me a message as a heads-up.
Comment from arberia on 12 July 2018 at 16:42
C’mon guys! This is just for fun, and all of us have created our countries, cities and towns based on something, using our imagination but based of something we previously knew. So please, just let’s fun! :)
Comment from Rustem Pasha on 12 July 2018 at 17:57
Illyria is just an ancient name for present day Albania (there is also a theory that Albanians are Illyrians) and the OGF Illiria is at least partially mapped in Albanian. It’s very nice to see this fascinating language in OGF! :)
But I must say you should take seriously Verisimilitude rule. I see there are some places named after real world people (like Zog I of Albania). It’s forbidden.
Anyway I will be happy to establish embassy in Babel as well as I welcome your embassy in the Frenk Millet in Tarsinar in Demirhan Empire.
Comment from Rustem Pasha on 12 July 2018 at 17:59
I mean Verisimiltude rule of course.
Comment from arberia on 12 July 2018 at 18:11
Thanks for the piece of advice! I have read the Verisimilitude rule and I’m not committing any mistake. Just basing my country and cities in something I consider interesting. Of course, there are many references based on Albanian history and language but nothing directly related to them (no real names of actual cities, no real names of actual people, etc). It is, as I said, just for fun, nothing bad intended.
Anyway, your embassies and consulates are welcomed in Babel, the capital city :)
PS: Zogu i bardh just means “White bird” :)
Comment from zhenkang on 12 July 2018 at 22:25
But concern is that you have used RW names for your country, not the fact why you used them. Like will we re-use Washington or New York for places in the Federal States?
If you want to change it, maybe just a few tweaks. Babel -> Belben. Illira -> Euliera?
Comment from DematyMaps on 13 July 2018 at 02:08
Good to know…
Comment from arberia on 13 July 2018 at 06:32
Thanks for the advices but I will maintain them like they currently are in OGF. As I said before, it is just based, nothing real.
Comment from deshrulex on 15 July 2018 at 00:43
And why does not that rule apply in Archanta, which is based in the United States of America? I understand that you have to be original but you seem to only apply for some yes and no others
Comment from Luciano on 15 July 2018 at 01:55
Personally I don’t think anything in Illiria violates the “no real world names” rule - that rule isn’t meant to be draconian. It only means that you should show some imagination and try to avoid having exact clones of well-known real-world places. But as long as someone is reinterpreting existing names with creativity, I think it’s fine. Certainly I have created many locations myself that use “real world names” - but I always create my own fictional, in-world reasons (etymologies) for using these names, and then I think it’s perfectly OK.
As an example. I have a city in the Ardisphere called Comala.
There is a real-world town in Mexico called Comala. But I chose “Comala” because of the famous author Juan Rulfo, who had created a fictional town called Comala in his novel, Pedro Páramo (and note that Comala is capital of the “Departamento de Páramos”). However, I created a historical persona, Pedro Comala (see the connection?), who was a major political and religious leader in 19th century Ardisphere. He founded the city of Comala (named after himself) as a Utopian religious community. Note that the surrounding Comuna is called Comuna Utopía.
So… is all this “legal” or “illegal” under the “no real-world-names” rule? I argue that I’m creatively using real-world names to create a fictional entity that has “cultural and linguistic references” back to our real world, but which re-interpret and creatively alter the context.
As long as we’re being creative, and can tell a good story, I think real-world names are OK. The “spirit” of the rule is to be creative. Idiots who place a city and call it “New York” and it looks exactly like Manhattan + Moar Freeways!!! are not being creative. That’s what the rule is intended to prevent.