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It was certainly an attention grabbing headline, but presumably the AOCI website support staff get ridiculous inquiries all the time. Most of them do not get forwarded on to a second chair regional mapper such as Yptol Aromai'i. Now they were intrigued and opened it up.

The message body was well written, almost official - a far cry from the attention grabbing headline that had been forwarded on from the net support team. The author introduced themselves as Sam Randolph, Secretary of Natural Resources for the Government of Delaclava. Mr. Randolph was writing as he had received a copy of the Atlas of Atlantian Oceania Version 1.6 and had some concerns about the absence of the United Republic of Delaclava from the Atlas.

Aromai'i was confused. In order to have passed from the net support staff to his desk, at least two reviewers would have had to have found this request legitimate. But the United Republic of Delaclava? Aromai'i was a cartographer not a history buff but there were certainly some overlaps required in the profession.

Of course, maybe it was just a versioning thing. Taking out a copy of the recently published Atlas of Atlantian Oceania Version 1.8.2.1, Aromai'i confirmed there was no Delaclava marked on the map. Having been born of a Misrantian Mother and Turorian father and having never worked for the AOCI in Magnaeus, the world East of Calania was mostly unfamiliar. Most of the geographical and geopolitical data feeding the AO Atlas from the Cyanea region was provided by teams from the Free Kingdom of Falcania who ruled the skies in the region with total control. As a result, AOCI never sent any of its own Drones into the sector.

While the details were fuzzy, Aromai'i recalled reading that political change in the region had at one point seen the Whittorians claim control of the entirety of Southern Cyanea though there was some push back from the locals and reports of disputes to the Whittorians right to rule. Eventually, the Whittorian seat of government centralized on the smaller "Islandokere" abandoning the larger Cyanea landmass after it was believed an small asteroid had struck the region resulting in higher sea levels and potentially unsafe levels of foreign contaminants in the soils.

Aromai'i decided to research the file on Cyanea and was shocked at what they found. The last detailed report from the Falcanian's was years prior. It read:

Update to follow? That was the last report from them. As Aromai'i thought longer on the topic they realized that no one from High Roost had attended the last 5 annual Cartography summits on Aoisland. Every single summit that Aromai'i had been to, the Cyanea & Luciterra Surveys were represented by a team from the Whittorian Islands of the Euran Overseas Territory. They were given the chance to review the Atlas, they were given a chance to report any changes in their area of regard - but nothing. No inputs, no objections, no "This entire nation is missing". Aromai'i decided to reach out to the Euran team, as well as the Falcanian's. They sensed something political was going on. The Eurans were trying to expand their footprint in Calania and likely weren't paying too much attention to what was going on in Cyanea. The Falcanians had recently ceded the Regional Delegacy back to Aoisland in a similar showing of putting their own interests ahead of those of the region. Of course, if the Whittorians had lost control of Delaclava they would certainly not be in any rush to update the Atlas to reflect that so would have no reason to self report.

Yptol Aromai'i had involved three of their colleagues in the hunt for answers surrounding the Delaclava inquiry. After getting a second look at the note from Mr. Sam Randolph, they realized that there was a new government in charge of Delaclava - a government that, unlike its predecessors, was focused on establishing and expanding relations with nations outside of Cyanea. Feeling more like detectives than Cartographers, the trio had abandoned the idea of packing their moving boxes and began to put together their theories on what had transpired to result in Delaclava not being on the map. The leading theory was as follows:

• 1. A weak and isolationist government in Delaclava allowed neighbor Whittoria to penetrate its society to such an extent that they were able to convince other government leaders throughout Atlantian Oceania into believing they had peacefully taken control of Delaclava in order to increase its perceived influence in the region. The internalized Delaclava government was potentially aware, but uninterested in these developments. Overtime, the Delaclava nomenclature would disappear from maps entirely due to this influence and Passports from Delaclava were not accepted at newly founded borders.
• 2. The Free Kingdom of Falcania was aware the Whittorian claims were invalid, but did not call them out on it as they did not want to disadvantage themselves from potentially taking ruler ship of Delaclava over themselves. It would be easier for Falcania to earn favor in taking Delaclava from Whittoria than from and Independent Delaclava themselves.
• 3. When the cross-dimensional foreign object affected sea levels in the region, the Falcanians simultaneously minimized and exaggerated reports of the impact of the event, seeing a new opportunity to seize control of the area making it appear as though the land area and population density had been reduced in the region to a level that required no independent survey from AOCI members, and all reporting on changes in the region could be handled from High Roost.
• 4. When the accurate reporting of Geological and Geopolitical changes in the region were no longer to their benefit, the Falcanians decided to stop attending the annual Summit at Aoisland. At the same time, however, a delegation from the Whittorian Islands showed up uninvited. The goal of the Euran Overseas Territory delegation was to begin negotiations for expansion of their holdings around Magnaeus and the former Sunrise lands bordering New West Guiana. When they realized that Falcania were not in attendance, they named themselves representatives of Cyanea and Luciterra even though they had not prepared any surveys of the sector. They self-assumed de-facto representation of the sector and attended subsequent summits under the guise of being the designated Cyanea & Luciterra team but really only looking to collect information that would further boost their claim to expansion within the Former Calanian Union.
• 5. When a new government was elected in Delaclava, they relaxed many of the former isolationist policies, and strived for a policy of openness and inclusion into regional affairs with step one being to re-claim their identity on the official Atlas. This would have the knock on effect of nullifying attempts from Whittoria and Falcania to assert control over their lands and exposing the team from the Euran Overseas Territory as not having provided good faith representation of the Cyanea & Luciterra surveyance sector at the Annual AO Cartography Summit in Aoisland.

"Here we go" Aramai'i muttered as they went to open the file, wondering if the Falcanians were just being crass or ignorant - they had missed five summits! Did they not realize the missed more than one, or were simply only sorry for missing the most recent one? The file appeared on the screen

The Trio collectively 'hmmm'd' at the data

"Well that looks a lot more like I remembered it" one of them said. Yptol spent a few moments turning the missing layer on and off. Sure, this could have been an innocent screw up. The Falcanian's might have intended to send the proper data over following their surveying the impacts of the cross-dimensional event. They might have actually sent a physical backup of the data to ensure it was properly received and it might have simply been overlooked by the AOCI staff due to the temporary nature of their work environment transitioning from the purpose built Magnaeus Headquarters to the very much temporary and much less well organized Lopinka Complex. Or, it could have been intentional. Sure, the cross dimensional event had an effect of the shape of the Cyanea landmass. After years of the militarily scrawny (compared to Falcania) Whittorians trying to lay claim over Cyanea, High Roost may just have figured a little misdirection was the best way to facilitate their own expansion. Then, robotically cycling between the layers, Yptol could feel anxiety rising amongst their colleagues. It was time to take off the detectives hat and remember what their job was. They were Cartographers. All they really had to do was make sure it was right from this point forward. There was a whole differently facility on Aoisland for dealing with Regional Council matters and it wasn't one that any of the Cartographers ever wanted to be called to testify at.



"I mean, whats a landmass between friends right?" as the trio chuckled, knowing that AO Atlas 1.8.2.1 was already out the door, on the printer and en-route to government officials throughout Atlantian Oceania. The Lopinka Headquarters of the Atlantian Oceania Cartography Institute was being packed up and many of the boxes had already been moved to the Tropicorp Warehouse for either long term storage or eventual relocation to the new headquarters.

"Days after press isn't probably the time for a major change like this... We have no capacity to handle it until the new Headquarters is up and running anyway" Aramai'i continued. "Which box do you think that Physical copy of the survey might be in?"

One of the Trio replied "I don't know, but my vote is we let them find it when unpacking the New Headquarters and deal with it then. Lets respond back to this Sam guy and tell him as much..."

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The message was sent. The ball was crisis averted. The trio were about to go back to their packing duty but one of them noticed a new message had come in. It was from the Eurans.

"Oh the Eurans have responded. We've got to get packing. They probably just want to clarify their Calanian holdings once more. I'll forward this off now that we've dealt with the Delaclava situation. Lets go get some boxes!"