Region (NationStates)
Adapted from NSindex.
A region is an integral grouping of all nations on NationStates. Nations can choose which region to be in, although Founders, executive World Assembly Delegates and Regional Officers with 'border control' powers can eject or ban nations.
There are two types of regions. Game regions are built into the game to serve a particular purpose, such as hosting new, ejected or recreated nations. Player-created regions are created by the players themselves, although the founder can now choose whether to grant themselves access to the Region Control.
Game Created Regions
Fifteen of the many founderless regions are built-in Game Created Regions which serve a particular purpose. In these regions, the World Assembly Delegate has executive access to Region Control, although the delegate must spend some of their influence (except in Warzones) to make any changes.
There are three subcategories of Game Regions: Feeders, Sinkers and Warzones. Delegates from Feeder and Sinker regions are usually influential due to the size of the Game regions, with plenty of new, ejected and returning nations to keep them in the top ten regions in the world by number of resident nations.
Feeder regions
Five of the game regions are Feeder regions, also known as the Pacific regions. They are starter regions for new nations, and so delegates cannot password-protect the region.
However, new nations can create and become a founder of a region, or join other regions straight away; existing nations can join at any time if they not banned from there.
Sinker regions
Four of the game regions are Sinker regions. The Rejected Realms takes in nations who were ejected or banned from other regions, while Lazarus, Balder, Osiris jointly take in reactivated nations. Delegates cannot password-protect any of these regions, and furthermore the delegate of The Rejected Realms cannot eject or ban nations because of its integral role.
NationStates introduced Balder and Osiris on October 19th, 2011 to balance membership numbers at Lazarus with other Feeder and Sinker regions.
Warzone regions
Six of the game regions are Warzone regions, introduced on June 28th, 2004 and designated specifically for raiding and defending. While Warzone delegates can only ban nations temporarily and cannot password-protect the region, they do not need to spend any influence to do so. Warzone region pages show the longest-serving delegate in their respective regions.