Consider any information here as out-of-character. Use with care.
Waaaay back in the Year Of Our Da 313 (2013 in Earf), when I was taking over the dear Union, I decided to just Google "Union of San Patricio" to see what came out.
Of all places, a blog about sports uniforms contained 2 comments about the Union, by none other than Conn Nugent, the creator of San Patricio and also the original and great comedian of Nova Vexillium, whose droll posts as the Secretary to the Da, commentator of diplomacy, sports and mouthpiece of the then retiring and somewhat mysterious Juan Pablo O'Gorman O'Driscoll were truly something eagerly awaited by the 30-odd players of the turn of the century Vex. Both the tongue-in-cheek undercurrent of a certain playing style present alongside the "completely serious government" and the "idealistic Utopian" variants of the ImagiNations universe, and the purposely anachronistic mixture of steampunk technology and bleeding-edge industry that became popular for a time (Fenizic airships, Austro-Hungarian fleets alongside container ships, and the fine old reliquary that is Estontetso) owe a great debt to the great Sanpatrician inventor of Los Rifleros Federales, the magnificent tube-and-rag flying machines now making up the Estontetsan air force, and the "thriving solar-energy sector" centered around Sharif-Sharif and coexisting with them.
Conn didn't restrict himself to humor, however; the strange idea of creating a multinational park and a peaceful but toothy international organization (even though he shrouded it all in his beloved neutrality) was swiftly realized in one of the most thoroughly thought through treaties on the Vex, MESTO. The Treaty of Puerto Bravo meant that San Patricio turned into a major player, and his rather abrupt exit shortly after that did detract from the game's entertainment potential.
As part of my attempt at a place of remembrance for a unique player among us Vexillians, I've tried to preserve the expansive, tropical style of all communiqués and activities the equatorial paradise has made public since 2020, with 2 significant modifications: I ignored George's assassination of the Da (of which there is no record left, AFAIK) and made JPO'G the protagonist instead of the hidden Wizard of Oz figure. Whether I can approach Conn's virtuoso humor... I leave it to the oldsters among us to judge.
I also added a parallel homage to the once resident tropical teller of tales, the larger-than-life figure of Conrado Susano Nunn Xibalbá, whose link to Conn Mario Nugent O'Connell, the revered first Secretary to the Da, should be pretty obvious. We all have borne witness to the outpouring of happiness that Tatic Conrado has made possible all over our (sometimes dour) little rock, and the fact that we have all laughed at the Booming Balams' antics can be traced straight back to how Conn designed the Union as a crazy Caribbean hamlet despite being real big (you'll see how big).
Conn is now the President of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and Environment, a pretty serious organization, and something to be proud of, I think. I wonder if he would want to come back, and if he would want his old Union again (and what he would think of the Seis Pueblos now).
I take the liberty of reproducing his 2 comments about the "bilingual kleptocracy" he was happily cultivating in the New Continents, in which he narrates some of the early history of the game and the reason he left. I love the fact that he chose to mention Vexillium and San Patricio in something as "foreign" to geosim and vexillology as a sports uniform place (although flags came up as a topic, motivating his answer) as well as the droll tone that is apparently his personal trademark.
March 11, 2013 at 10:59 am[]
In the 1990s, the guy who started the Flags of the World website created a planet called Vexillium. Vexillium was the same size as Earth, with roughly the same ratio of ocean to land. There were continents. These continents were divided into imaginary countries. One such was the Union of San Patricio / Estado Unido de San Patricio, a bilingual kleptocracy that covered a land era exactly equal to that occupied today by Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. It was a lot of fun. There were embassies, alliances, silly diplomatic tiffs. And — of course — lots and lots of flags and coats-of-arms and the like. San Patricio’s national colors were blue, green and yellow. The San Patricio army was outfitted exactly like the French Army of August 1914, except that the red kepis and trousers of the Marne were turned Kelly Green.
It stayed fun for about a year. But as the planet was fully settled, it had attracted younger players who just wanted to declare war on each other and have bloody battles. [Sigh] The earlier drolleries were replaced by kids who wanted to play Risk.
If anyone’s interested, I’ll see if I can unearth the San Patricio National Archives.
May 31, 2012 at 7:47 am[]
“… Here’s the logo for Tokyo’s 2020 Oympics bid (from Jeremy Brahm)… ”
Excellent. Lovely, even.
“… Speaking of U.S. soccer, the uni number color was changed last night…”
That red-and-white hoop stripe look on the USA shirt really works for me, though I wish the white square on the back were smaller. Blue shorts work too. Go, Yanks! Too bad about the ever-inadequate US defense.
AD
Brazil looked sharp, of course, though I sadly note the absence of some conspicuous use of green. As Robert M can verify, blue-green-yellow combinations — with rotating emphases on each of the tri-colors — has long been the official colors of the Union of San Patricio / Estado Unido de San Patricio, a kleptocratic nation-state with which I have been associated.