"Talossa's Anniversary Reveals a Different Country," by Sir Alexandreu Davinescu

When Talossa first came into existence, it had only a single citizen: its founder, Robert Ben Madison - King Robert I. Thirty-five years later, the country has more than two hundred citizens... and it’s still growing! These citizens hail from all over the globe, despite their innate spiritual link with the land of Talossa and those other people everywhere who are Talossan at heart. The Prime Ministry has only told Beric'ht that they will say a few appropriate words to commemorate the occasion, but all citizens of 2014/XXXV must be led to ponder the remarkable changes in the Kingdom since its inception in 1 979/I. What began as a small group of family and friends, spread by word of mouth, gradually expanded over many years. The explosion of the country onto the Internet was delayed for quite some time by the tight grip of its founder and first monarch, King Robert I, who ensured that prospective citizens needed to purchase a book and be personally vetted by the Ziu, but in the wake of his departure and the various crises a decade ago, new procedures have helped the population of Talossans skyrocket. The recent weakening of the Three Strikes law, which jettisons completely inactive citizens, makes it likely that this rate will only to increase in the years to come. Projections from recent rates of 40% put the population of the country at more than eight hundred citizens in less than a decade!

The nature of these citizens is also extraordinarily different. For half of the country's existence, all citizens were residents of the Greater Talossan Area, but modern Talossa has only a few citizens who reside in their homeland. Nearly every citizen - including all recent Seneschals, the whole staff of Beric'ht, and even His Majesty the King - are cybercits. And what is more, relatively few have any connections at all to the founder and former ruler. That may have led to his downfall, but it should be a matter of pride that the boyhood dream of one brilliant and odd man could blossom into an international gathering of ineluctably Talossan people.

These new citizens have all brought new interests and new skills, and reshaped the nation in virtually every way. With a boundless future and infinite possibilities in front of Talossa, who is to say what future years may bring?