Collab:Ingerland

Ingerland is a collaborative territory in northwest Uletha, providing a place for an English cultural theme. Ingerland is canonically a historical economic and colonial power. Unlike the United Kingdom, Ingerland is not geographically isolated from the Ulethan continent, as it shares borders with Kalm and other owned territories.

Structure

The entire country is divided up into regions that make up the whole of a unitary state. Two of the regions are "purple," meaning they are owned by the community and fully collaborative: the capital region and a second region that is a bit more rural in nature. For the project to succeed, there will need to be teamwork and compromise between members. Before taking action that impacts neighboring regions, a user should discuss the ideas with the broader pool of users in the country. Any changes to this structure will come with a notice from the administrative team.

Individual regions

Individual regions are not independent entities, nor are they like states of the United States that possess a degree of autonomy in a federalist system. Much like in the United Kingdom, regions possess little governmental authority. This does not mean that users do not possess a degree of autonomy in their mapping. What it means, however, is that shared questions of economy, history, and culture are to be discussed as a coalition of mappers. Large-scale issues such as placement of major cities, coordination of motorways and rails, and national cultural matters will need to be decided by the country's mappers, as well. Please keep in mind that not everyone can have a London-style city in their territory. It is expected that other areas of England, from Merseyside to Suffolk and from Tyne and Wear to Dorset, be represented in inspiration.

National council and coordination

For these major and national decisions, the Ingerland mappers will collectively form a national council. The users will appoint a single user to be the "national coordinator" at the approval of the administrative team, subject to renewal or new vote every six months. The coordinator role is less involved than that of its Federal States counterpart. The coordinator will simply help guide the discussion of major national issues, hold votes in the wiki forum where necessary, and coordinate questions or issues among the members where necessary, and discuss with the administrative team when relevant. It is hoped that the coordinator would also do basic upkeep of Ingerland's wiki article, even if it remains in largely basic form with simply an infocard.

Collaborative "purple" territories

It is expected that all Ingerland's users will help coordinate the direction of the two "purple" regions, but one user should be willing to step up to help oversee it. In the interim, while the project gets underway, the power will necessarily fall to collective decision-making instead of being vested into a coordinator. The capital region, Region 14, is designed as a collaborative territory to prevent a single user from "owning" the capital. Please note that provisional plans for this region must be approved by the administrative team before mapping them; it can take a strong London theme, but replicating London will not be accepted.

The second collaborative territory will be declared after the initial round of territorial applications and will be structured the same way.

Existing mapping

In some regions, mapping exists that predates the creation of this project. Users may wish to select one of these regions and adopt the mapping. Should mapping not be adopted or desired by that region, the user must contact the admin team before deleting it. The existing mapping may be offered to other users in Ingerland or moved to a different project to help jump-start its activity.

Geographic location

As a whole, a few things need to be kept in mind that make Ingerland distinct from a real-world England. First, the territory is a little closer to the arctic circle than its real-world counterpart. Climate should be mostly similar, but northern regions are much more akin to the climate of northern and central Scotland than to England. Additionally, the terrain of the northern territories should necessarily be a bit more rugged and possibly even a bit mountainous. This is especially true along the northwestern border. The borderlands with Kalm are hilly but not mountainous. Existing rivers should either be used or replaced with those of national consensus.

Additionally, Ingerland has two regions that are separated from the main territory. The "eastern regions" are not overseas territories and should be viewed to have long been part of the Ingerish realm despite the cultural distinctions. Any future additions or expansions to the project will occur as demand warrants. This may be annexation of adjacent territory or inclusion of overseas territories.

Culture and language

For the regions that make up the Ingerish core, the culture should be "Ingerish:" use the English language and built using England as a theme for mapping. Areas near the borders may have some German (south) Icelandic (northwest), or Danish (northeast) influences but should be solidly in the English theme. Influences of Celtic languages, such as Cornish, Irish, Manx, Scottish, and Welsh should only find a presence in the eastern regions. Assume that these cultures, if they reached the other core regions, would have been long assimilated for at least 1500 years. The eastern regions should be heavily influenced by these cultures. Mapping must still be in English, but Celtic influences will be aplenty, as the territories around and east of it are designated for these cultures in the future.

Historically, Ingerland was a Christic nation and a constitutional monarchy. The status of religion and the monarch is something that users may wish to discuss. To keep continuity with former colonies, there was at one point an "Ingerish" church that was either its own rite within the Ortholic church or separated in some measure of 'Protestantism.' Whether or not this "Ingerish church" was or is a state church of Ingerland is up to the users, but the movement that bears its name must have originated here and spread to the Ingerish colonies.

Also in keeping with established canon of former colonies, there are a few placenames that will need to be built into the territory. Most of these may be accommodated with "purple" territories, but users may wish to include them into their own regions to connect with other projects. More on that below.

Meta considerations that impact other projects

Potential adjustments to established canon

Although the name "Ingerland" is well established in the OGF canon, the administrative team is open to entertaining a change if there is a good alternative that the community can agree upon. Once the project is established, this option will no longer be considered. Similarly, should a successful name change occur and be resoundingly supported, the administrative team may be open to allowing for a change of the name for the English language.

If there is overwhelming support from the regional mappers of Ingerland to amend and change the flag of the territory, this may be discussed. The current flag, however, must be regarded as a former flag from during the days of the colonial empire in order to keep continuity with standing canon.

Things that must be retained in the established canon

Ingerland was once at the helm of a great colonial empire. As such, toponymy that comes from this country has spread across the OGF world. This means that there is a special role for mappers of former colonies. Regarding region names, two names must be kept as regional names: Colsex and Delenshire. These two names are established canon elsewhere and may be applied to the capital region (as a historic name) and the second collaborative region in the event no user elects to use them. The city names of Winburgh, Lynchester, and Delenter must also be retained in some form, whether in their existing uses or elsewhere. Once again, these will be applied to notable cities within the collaborative territories if not claimed by other users.

Other items may be added to this list either as settlement names or the names of important historical figures after discussion from stakeholders in projects that were former colonies (including but not limited to Deodeca, Federal States, New Ingerland, Vodeo, etc.). After a period of four weeks from this posting, this list will be finalized.

New things to decide

Even though Ingerland is divided into regions for territory-ownership purposes, the collective of Ingerland mappers should decide elements of mapping practices to have consistency across borders. This includes mapping of administrative divisions below the regions, like metropolitan, non-metropolitan, or ceremonial counties and infrastructure projects like distinctions between unclassified and track highways.

Additionally, the exact location and name of the capital within Region 14 must be decided, along with the historical presence of other major urban areas. Please note that any capital will not be just a recreation of London.

Timeline of project development

• Now: Discussion of critical points below begins; former colonies begin submitting a priority list of toponyms and monarchs to include in the project
• 01 May: Users may begin applying for a region of Ingerland, but no applications will be approved prior to 10 May to allow for initial discussions; active applicants will be given priority in the decision-making process over the broader community.
• No later than 10 May: Final decisions on outline of geology, hydrology, and topography
• 25 May: Input from former colonies ends

Joining the project

Users may apply for a region as part of the normative territory-application process. Regions may be obtained under the following circumstances:

• Mappers without a territory may request a region as their first territory, provided that appropriate mapping skill is demonstrated
• Mappers in beginner territories may request a region as their first canon territory, contingent upon skill demonstrated in the beginner zone
• Mappers may trade their existing territory may apply to do so; English-style mapping may be approved for relocation
• Mappers who own a well-developed territory that meets the West Uletha threshold may request a region as a second territory
• Mappers may simply elect to join a "purple" territory and not own a region themselves but will need to demonstrate a prolonged commitment to the project in order to have an official vote on national measures.

Where can I take part of discussion about Ingerland?

Ingerland's discussion is housed officially on the wiki forum. All voting and official discussion will take place here and not off-site.

Regions

Below is the list of all Ingerland's regions, their owners and additional notes for them. It is required that all owned regions have names.

There are two regions which are collaborative and open for everyone. Other regions can be requested as single-owned territories, or private collaborative projects.

#	Name	Type	Owner	Important centres	Notes
-01
-02
-03
-04
-05
-06
-07
-08
-09
-10
-11
-11
-12
-13
-14		Collaborative (public)	admin		Home of the national capital.
-15
-16
-17
-98
-99