Talk:Republic of the Sphere

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Founding[edit]

I know the RotS was founded in either 3081 (the year Terra was liberated) or 3082 (because Surrender Your Dreams makes reference to a 3082 law), but I'm not sure which. Anybody? Scaletail 20:33, 3 January 2007 (CST)

If you look at the history of The Republic of the Sphere on Linknet, the nation was founded in December of 3081, and was followed by "the Resettlement Act of 3082 (which was his [Devlin Stone's] first official decree as exarch of the new Republic)." --Ebakunin 01:26, 18 August 2008 (CDT)

"The"[edit]

Why was this moved? Putting "The" in the name of the article is like calling an article on the US "The United States." It's not really proper to say "United States took part in WWII," you have you say "The United States took part in WWII." That doesn't mean it's the name of the country. By that logic, we will have to move most of the faction articles because you refer to "the Federated Suns" or "the Free Worlds League". --Scaletail 07:28, 17 August 2008 (CDT)

I agree. I really don't think we need to add 'the' to each and every state, faction and unit out there. It adds nothing to the article, in my POV. I'd appreciate hearing Ebakunin's POV, though. --Revanche (talk|contribs) 10:33, 17 August 2008 (CDT)
Normally you'd be absolutely right. However, for some reason WotC made the deliberate grammatical choice to capitalize "The". Starting with The Ruins of Power (the third novel), every novel in the Dark Age series refers to "The Republic of the Sphere", not "the Republic of the Sphere". The abbreviation uses the same rules: "The Republic" instead of "the Republic". (In fact, as I go back and double-check the "From the cover" section in the entries, I often have to switch from lowercase to uppercase, since I copied 'em incorrectly.) LinkNet also uses "The Republic" instead of "the Republic". I looked around and The Republic of the Sphere seems to be the only faction for which this capitalization rule applies (thank God). So yes, you're right, except for The Republic of Sphere :P --Ebakunin 18:03, 17 August 2008 (CDT)
Taking this to a 'spirit vs word' issue, do you feel that is intentional? In several cases of FASA/FanPro/CGL (well, maybe not CGL yet), the word "The" or "A" was used in the title of a book, where similar others within that type (I'm thinking Field Manuals and Housebooks) did not make use of it. In that case, here on BTW, we went with the spirit of the title. For example, in this case, do the majority of people abbreviate the state as TRotS or RotS? I'd say the latter. --Revanche (talk|contribs) 22:01, 17 August 2008 (CDT)
I think it's very much intentional by WizKids. If you look at the back cover of Daughter of the Dragon, Fortress Republic, or Trial by Chaos they reference "the Draconis Combine", "the Federated Commonwealth", or "the Rasalhague Dominion", but always write "The Republic of the Sphere". It's a singular example (or at least I can't find another example). It's bizarre, which makes it notable. For some reason the publishers have made a concerted effort to distinguish The Republic in a weird grammatical manner and I was using WizKids as the primary source of the title. --Ebakunin 01:21, 18 August 2008 (CDT)

I see it being applied very inconsistently, even within documents. A Timeline of the Inner Sphere and The Republic uses "The Republic of the Sphere", "the Republic of the Sphere", and "the Republic of The Sphere". For example:

3134

On November 26, Paladin Victor Steiner-Davion is murdered. This event sets in motion an investigation that leads to the discovery of a plan by nearly half of all Republic senators to identify and groom young warriors in an effort to improve their chances of being chosen as knights of the Sphere, thus setting them on the path toward paladinship and eligibility to be elected as exarch. The ultimate goal of this far-sighted plan: for the Senate to control the Republic of the Sphere by controlling the exarch.

3135
In April, Exarch Jonah Levin addresses The Republic, officially dissolving the Senate in the face of that body's refusal to submit to an external review of its members' actions. [my emphasis]

Another example, this one from The Republic of the Sphere:

With the Jihad finally brought to an end, Devlin Stone immediately called for the creation of the Republic of the Sphere, a new interstellar nation with control over all worlds within one hundred twenty light years of Terra. With the backing of such men as Victor Steiner-Davion, Hohiro Kurita and Anastasias Focht, and riding the groundswell of support within the military and civilian populations on nearly every world within the Inner Sphere, The Republic was created in December of 3081. [my emphasis]

It seems to be that "The" is capitalized in the short form, probably to differentiate it from any other "republics". I therefore propose that we move it back. --Scaletail 21:42, 18 August 2008 (CDT)

Knights[edit]

I noticed that article is missing information about the "regular" Knights of the Sphere. There were notably three, the Ghost Knights are mentioned in article with Paladins. But i think should be seperate section written up about the Knights-Errant & full rank ranked Knights & Ghost Knights seperately from the Paladins. In the book Sword of Sedition goes to detail how both errants and full ranked knights are different. Example of the ranks is described that full knights have full capes when errants don't have capes at all. Through novels, Knight-errants are always working for either a (full) Knight or Paladin. -- Wrangler 19:12, 5 March 2009 (PST)

Be bold.--Scaletail 07:58, 7 March 2009 (PST)