Zed

Zabëlle "Zed" Skye
Skye in August 2020
Born	October 11, 2004 (2004-10-11) Surrey, England
Other names	Luna Skye
Occupations	Micronational etymologist Micropatriologist Writer MicroWiki editor MicroWiki historian Entrepreneur
Years active	2017–present
Known for	Most-prolific editor on MicroWiki (2019–2022)
Notable work	Micronational Dictionary (2022–present)
Title	CEO of Statistic-Dime (2019–2020; 2024–present) Head of the Institute of Micropatriological Research (2022–present)
Prince of New Eiffel
In office 11 August 2018 – 20 June 2020
Preceded by	Micronation established
Succeeded by	Janus I
Microgenitor of Knuffeldierland
In office 1 September 2023 – present
Signature

Zabëlle Lunarius Skye (born 11 October 2004)—more commonly known mononymously as Zed or rarely as Luna Skye—is a British-South African micropatriologist, etymologist, writer, micronational entrepreneur, MicroWiki historian and semi-retired micronationalist and MicroWiki editor originally hailing from the MicroWiki sector. He is best known for his various intermicronational ventures and past contributions to the MicroWiki encyclopaedia; Skye was the most-prolific editor on the website between 2019 and 2022. He has been the writer, editor and publisher of the Micronational Dictionary since 2022, the most significant dictionary of micronational jargon.

He was the founder and microgenitor (principal contributor) of the Principality of New Eiffel and its predecessor states between 31 December 2017 and the micronation's dissolution on 1 November 2020. He held various positions in the micronation's first incarnation, the Republic of New Finland, since 31 December 2017, through the Kingdom of New Finland on 4 June and into New Eiffel, its third and final incarnation, between 11 August 2018 and its dissolution. Credited for the majority of New Eiffel's cultural, diplomatic, archival and industrial development—particularly its transportation system—he most notably served as New Eiffel's head of state between its establishment and his abdication on 20 June 2020. However, he did receive criticism from the opposition Yellow Party for his lack of legislative lawmaking, neglect of political infrastructure and later for allowing non-residents to become citizens, all of which were contributing factors to the crisis in New Eiffel which began on 14 December 2019 and resulted in the micronation's dissolution.

Skye is the founder and CEO of Statistic-Dime, which he formed on 24 October 2019 via the merger of two of his companies. Most prominent in the MicroWiki sector in 2020, Statistic-Dime became known for its intermicronational ventures—all spearheaded by Skye—like Micronationalist of the Month, Micronationalist of the Year, several surveys and Microcode, most of which received acclaim. Since 21 June 2022, Skye has been Head of the Institute of Micropatriological Research (which he founded), which publishes his Micronational Dictionary in paperback and digital formats. Its fifth edition, planned for publication on 5 January 2025, will have 530 entries. An active contributor to the MicroWiki online encyclopaedia and wiki, Skye served as an administrator on the website between 2 February 2020 and 6 January 2021. As of October 2024, he had over 62,000 edits, and he currently holds several editing records on the website.

Outside of New Eiffel, Skye was involved in several intermicronational organisations and has held citizenship in over 40 micronations; he formerly had an active political career, being elected or appointed to several offices and positions including federal, judicial, ministerial, public sector work and local employment. He was the founder and first Chair of the New Eiffel Union of Micronations (later the Organisation of Active Micronations) between 21 November 2018 and mid-2019—during which he presided over 30 member states. Between 2019 and 2020, he was heavily involved in the Grand Unified Micronational, Cupertino Alliance and the Micronational Olympic Federation, as the creator of the Micronational Rock Paper Scissors Tournament. Since 1 September 2023, he has ruled over a jocular plush nation called Knuffeldierland, located entirely within his bedroom.

In the MicroWiki sector, Skye is cited as having been one of the most influential micronationalists in the community in 2020, especially amongst the "New Guard", and has frequently been considered as one of the wiki's most ubiquitous editors. Skye placed himself fourth on his list of the Top 25 Most Influential Micronationalists in the MicroWiki Sector of 2020, which was positively received. He has also been the subject of several community memes, including @New Eiffel Government between April 2019 and November 2020 and the more affectionate Zedposting in February 2020. Skye is or was a member of several invitation-only micronational social clubs, including the Micropolitan Club and Lounge and Drunkiz Gadurō; he is also a co-founder and former member of TOES and the Fun Gang.

Pre-micronational life and ancestry

Zabëlle Lunarius Skye was born on 11 October 2004 at 10:50 p.m. (UTC) in the county of Surrey, southeastern England to South African immigrant parents. They immigrated to England in November 2000 and had been married since 14 July 1999. Skye's father, George Smith (born 10 April 1969) is an accountant and part-time events manager; his mother, Maria Johannes Wilhelmina Renier Smith (born 30 January 1970; née van Bosch), is a physician and artist. Skye is the middle child of three brothers; his older brother was born on 2 June 2003 and his younger brother, retired micronationalist Janus Smith, was born on 20 September 2006. At birth, Skye weighed 4.296 kilograms (9.471 lbs), larger than the average weight of a newborn.

An Afrikaner, Skye is of English, Dutch, French and German descent. Most of his South African ancestors worked in agriculture, hunting or the railroad; however, his maternal grandfather, Pieter K. G. Smith (1935–1997), was a prominent diplomat, and his fourth-great grandfather, Marthinus Wessel Pretorius (1819–1901), was the first official President of the South African Republic between 1866 and 1871. Pretorius also compiled the macronation's first constitution. Skye is bilingual, speaking English and Afrikaans with native proficiency; he also studies German, Portuguese and Dutch.

Early childhood

Born to Christian parents, Skye was baptised at a Protestant church and raised Christian, attending Church every Sunday. His parents moved to their current residence, the Main Building—a semi-detached house in London built in June 1936—on 10 March 2008. In order to learn Afrikaans, Skye's parents stipulated that their children speak only Afrikaans with them while at home, while Skye grew up on predominantly English-language television series—especially those of Cartoon Network. Skye and his siblings were home educated, being taught primarily by their mother as their father worked most of the day.

Skye and his family regularly traveled, often to see their extended family; during his early childhood, he visited South Africa and the Canary Islands, a territory of Spain located off the coast of Africa, on several occasions. By 2012, Skye had been to nine macronations. Between 2013 and 2015, he attended a trampolining school, forest school and drama and art classes at a building for the British Sea Cadets. Skye's mother repeatedly wanted her son to do gymnastics as he was very flexible and energetic, but Skye regularly declined. He has been bespectacled (wearing glasses) since 2014.

Entry into micronationalism (December 2017–July 2018)

Main article: New Finland (micronation)

Republic of New Finland (December 2017–June 2018)

Initial flag of the Republic of New Finland—Skye's first micronation

Skye initially became interested in micronationalism upon discovering the Republic of Molossia via its national website in late 2017. Inspired by this, he soon began further researching micronationalism on Wikipedia until gaining the courage to proclaim his own micronation, the Republic of New Finland, on 31 December 2017. A presidential republic, he declared himself President and laid claim to his cousins' home in a suburb of Pretoria, South Africa during a holiday to the macronation with his family which they had commenced on 9 December. Skye created the first draft for New Finland's national flag, finalising it on 1 January 2018, alongside creating the coat of arms and the design for a hypothetical digital currency—the Finlandic pound.

On 4 January, Skye laid claim to his family's residence in Greater London, England, upon returning home from their trip to South Africa. Upon his arrival to Greater London, he immediately faced a civil war; on 5 January, citizen Janus Smith (Skye's younger brother) briefly declared war on the micronation in an attempt to commit a coup d'état. However, he surrendered just minutes later after Skye hit him on the leg with a wooden sword. During the following three weeks, Skye prioritised the cultural and artistic industries of New Finland, as well as designating and maintaining several bicycle routes. However, by mid-January, New Finland had become dormant.

On 9 February, Skye became interested in New Finland again and realised that, in order to revive the micronation's former activity, he would have to enact political reforms. To achieve this, he likely dissolved the original claim in South Africa due to the long distance and created a new flag and coat of arms for New Finland, alongside designating various other national symbols. He also created the legal provisions—albeit in a limited capacity—for a supreme court, as well as the power to hold referendums—formally enacting democracy in the micronation. On 2 March, Skye designed a passport, although it was never printed, and proclaimed three cities. Due to his interest in cinema, Skye created the Official New Eiffel Ratings Board (then unnamed) on 17 March, followed by the construction of the Dead Tree Lane bicycle route in April alongside Smith.

The Royal Archives—the erstwhile national archives of the Principality of New Eiffel (successor to New Finland) that now operate to preserve New Eiffelic history—suggests that New Finland was dormant during May. Photographs taken on Skye's tablet indicate that he was interested in New Finland between 19–24 May; he probably began considerations for a second reform for the micronation, hoping to once again restore activity.

Kingdom of New Finland (June–July 2018)

Flag of the Kingdom of New Finland

On 4 June, Skye proclaimed the Kingdom of New Finland as the successor to the Republic. The reasoning behind his decision to transform the micronation into a monarchy is unknown, but he may have felt himself to be the microgenitor (principal creator) of the micronation. The Kingdom adopted a new flag and coat of arms, both of which having been designed by Skye the previous day. On 24 June, Łight Net (ŁN) was created by Skye and adopted as the national currency. Drawn on pieces of paper, ŁN had five denominations and, unlike the Finlandic pound, Łight Net experienced significant use until 12 July, when Smith burned all of his Łight Net banknotes in protest against Skye's proposed vehicle registration plating and ID system for bicycles in the kingdom.

By either June or July, Skye had become the king of New Finland, replacing George Smith—Skye's father. Sometime during these two months—most likely in mid- or late July—Skye was accused of abusing his position as monarch by attempting to use loopholes in New Finland's law to claim ownership over Janus Smith's property. Additionally, he also controlled the supreme court, which ruled in his favour. Smith fought back, however, by renouncing his participation in New Finland, which dismayed Skye. Following backlash from several of New Finland's other citizens, the micronation subsequently returned to a state of dormancy.

Reign as Prince of New Eiffel (August 2018–June 2020)

Further information: Principality of New Eiffel

After engaging in geofiction via roleplaying on the free browser-based government simulation game NationStates—and running a plush toy micronation in his bedroom between 28 July and 3 August 2018—Skye once again became interested in physical micronationalism on 1 August. He envisioned the creation of the third iteration of his micronation, the Principality of New Eiffel, by as early as 8 August.

First year: developing New Eiffel (August 2018–August 2019)

Skye holding the flag of New Eiffel, July 2019

Skye theorised that New Finland's fall into dormancy was due to its lack of planning. As such, on 8 August. he made a checklist of things he wanted his future micronation to have, and began further researching the micronationalism online. He discovered MicroWiki (though he did not register an account until 27 September) and MicroWikia that same day, and viewed the 6-part BBC comedic documentary series How to Start Your Own Country over a period of several days—which gave him much inspiration. On 9 August, Skye began work on New Eiffel's recognised public holidays, declared Christianity the official religion, and outlined several national symbols.

On 10 August, he started gathering citizens via an online mobile game, and filmed a digital tour of New Eiffel (then still unnamed) under the title Prince Zabëlle I. Skye officially declared the Principality of New Temporary an independent sovereign state on 11 August, formally declaring himself Prince. He created the national flag that same day and later adopted the coat of arms which was previously used by the Kingdom of New Finland on 13 August. On 30 August, Skye wrote and adopted "Friendly, New Eiffel" as the national anthem, replacing Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), a string sextet in one movement composed in 1899 by the Austrian-American composer Arnold Schoenberg.

On 30 August, upon Janus's recommendation, New Temporary was renamed to New Eiffel. On 1 September, Skye declared a general election to take place between 15–25 December for the micronation's first official prime minister. On 10 September, Skye declared several additional national symbols and began work on a constitution on 25 September. Throughout October, Skye oversaw further development of the law, military, additional territorial claims and transportation, and in November, he commenced New Eiffel's diplomatic outreach into the MicroWiki sector. He also created a business registry and citizenship application. In late December, Skye established the Royal Archives, and on 25 December, he created His Royal Mail Service of New Eiffel, a planned national package delivery and mail service that never came to fruition.

On 21 January 2019, he wrote a new national anthem, "Stand tall, New Eiffel", which replaced "Friendly, New Eiffel". His constitution was formally adopted on 1 March. Noting the absence of any chivalric honours for the micronation, Skye created the Order of the Beaver on 25 March for micronationalists he "deemed kind". On 28 April, he commissioned Walker Schroeder, then-Chancellor of the Unitary State of Swivia, for the creation of a new, fully-instrumental anthem, "Aardvarks on Parade", which was not completed until 20 May 2020. Skye established two more orders, the Order of the Lion—awarded for bravery—on 25 May 2019, and the Order of the Amphisbaena Potato—for good humour—on 15 June. Skye conducted New Eiffel's only census on 6 July.

Political changes and Elijahgate (September–November 2019)

Elijah Mack (pictured in November 2019) caused the Elijahgate scandal which ultimately limited Skye's power and royal authority

Main article: Elijahgate

On 3 September 2019, upon Skye's decree, acts of the New Eiffelic parliament began being officially recorded. By this point, New Eiffel had several online citizens, although only physical residents of the principality were able to vote in general elections. Skye supported giving online citizens this right as he believed they would be more active and dedicated than New Eiffel's five residents, who he believed to be disinterested in the micronation. Janus Smith, Skye's brother and leader of the libertarian-conservative Yellow Party, adamantly opposed this on the grounds that online citizens were not bound by any the micronation's laws—which only affected physical residents.

On 11 September, Smith agreed to a compromise with Skye that would allow online citizens to form their own political parties as long as they would not be able to vote. On 7 October, the first political parties led by online citizens were established, including the big tent individualist New Eiffelic Party of Individualism headed by Smith and Elijah Mack. It is likely around this time or earlier that Elijah and Smith formulated the idea to secretly convert New Eiffel into a government-less anarcho-capitalist state—a micrononstate. This would commence the scandal known as Elijahgate.

On 27 November, Smith proposed a bill called the Act Act 2019 (an earlier version of the Freedom Amendment) stipulating the abolition of Skye's ability to veto any proposed bill of parliament; however, Skye did not grant the bill royal assent, a requirement which Smith and Mack had seemingly forgotten. Prime Minister Maria Smith opposed the bill and supported the New Eiffelic monarchy; the following day, Smith and van Bosh reached a compromise with the Constitutional Amendment Act 2019, stipulating the rules for an amendment to the constitution, and the Prince Powers Act 2019, which required the head of state to grant royal assent to any bill that passed with 70 percent or more in favour. This greatly weakened Skye's power and authority.

The crisis in New Eiffel (December 2019–June 2020)

Main article: Crisis in New Eiffel

Loss of the constitution

Main article: 2019–20 New Eiffelic constitution crisis

On 14 December 2019, Skye inadvertently lost the digital and only record of New Eiffel's constitution, commencing the 2019–20 New Eiffelic constitution crisis and subsequently the greater crisis in New Eiffel. The only existing law documentation within New Eiffel were now acts passed through parliament, although the legality of these acts as well as the proposing of further bills was brought into question as there was no longer any legal document declaring the parliament as authoritative. However, the Political Party Amendment (Act №16)—which set a minimum membership threshold for parties—was passed successfully on 18 December, and the 2019 general election still took place as scheduled on 25 December; Janus Smith was elected Prime Minister.

After much deliberation from parliament members, on 20 December, parliament was suspended until 6 January 2020. This brought New Eiffel's political and legal stability into question. An early attempt to write a new constitution began on 30 December, headed by Leon Montan of the Communist Party who invited Skye, Christina Nowell of the New Eiffel Anti-Individualist Alliance—the leader of the opposition—and citizen Cristian Dobrev to contribute. However, the initiative never materialised. When the suspension of parliament concluded on 6 January 2020, no further parliamentary sessions would ever be held due to the lack of a response from Smith. Additionally, the confusing electoral process resulted in the seats of parliament being left undefined with further dispute of who its members actually were.

On 11 February, non-New Eiffelic citizen James Frisch approached Skye and offered to write a new constitution for the micronation. He eagerly accepted, and Frisch began working on the constitution with input from Skye. On 12 February, the first draft was finished, and by 5 March, Skye and Janus had approved the constitution after making some final revisions. The new constitution was to revoke the former constitution along with all of New Eiffel's other laws, acts and constitutional amendments. Montan and Skye decided to propose the constitution through a public referendum, which began on 18 March and concluded on 1 April. The new constitution was officially adopted that same day, thus concluding the initial crisis.

2020 political crisis

Main article: 2020 New Eiffelic political crisis

Christina Nowell (pictured in 2021), a royalist, supported Skye's role as a monarch throughout the 2020 New Eiffelic political crisis

Smith's lack of action during the crisis prompted harsh criticism, resulting in him failing a motion of no confidence on 20 April. As leader of the opposition, Nowell replaced Smith as the interim Prime Minister of New Eiffel. On 28 April, Montan proposed several motions in parliament and declared that they passed despite not receiving royal assent. Nowell noted that this was unconstitutional, which was followed by heated debates between the two, culminating in the suspension of parliament. However, as the constitution provided no provisions for this, it triggered a constitutional crisis. Subsequently, parliament voted to temporarily declare Zabëlle I an absolute monarch, restoring his royal authority that had been lost after Elijahgate.

Nowell repeatedly accused Montan and her allies of attempting a coup d'état over New Eiffel, while Zabëlle I stated that Montan had been acting in good faith. A provisional government was established on 1 May with the intention of holding national elections. Organised by Jayden Lycon of the Cupertino Electoral Supervisory Commission, submissions for candidacy opened on 7 May, with the election commencing between 23–25 May and thus ending the crisis. Independent candidate Nicholas Randouler was elected, but he suffered from an intracranial aneurysm that same day. Attempts to relieve the swelling were unsuccessful, and he died on 3 June, with his death only becoming public knowledge in New Eiffel on 8 June.

Abdication (June 2020)

Main article: Abdication of Zabëlle I

On 16 June, Skye announced his wish to abdicate. He revealed that same day that he had been considering his abdication "for a few months." He signed his abdication letter on 18 June, which was to be made official upon Smith's coronation, whom Skye had chosen as his successor due to being his brother. A crown was also created for the ceremony, which had to be rushed due to Skye's short notice. At the coronation, which took place on 20 June, the entire royal family was present. Skye took the crown and put it atop Janus's head, declaring him His Majesty Janus the First, Second Prince of New Eiffel. Skye gave a speech following his abdication:

It has been an honour to be the Prince of this nation, for nearly two years. We together have held strong through the good times, as well as the tough times. I definitely have no regrets, and I will never stop loving or even being involved with New Eiffel. I wish the new Prince the best of luck, and he has my full support and confidence he will serve and lead the nation successfully.

— Skye's abdication speech, spoken in person (20 June 2020)

Janus granted Skye the substantive title of "Duke of Hsed."

Knuffeldierland (September 2023–present)

Main article: Knuffeldierland

On 1 September 2023, Skye declared the micronation of Knuffeldierland, a simulationist bedroom nation and plush nation located in his upstairs bedroom. It has some 70 or 80 citizens, all of whom are stuffed toys (plushies) except for Skye and his brother, Janus. The micronation has several structures, all models, including a numismatic museum, an elaborate church and music studio all located on his bedroom shelves. Despite its size, the church is earnest and stores Skye's Bibles and theological books, which he reads daily.

Intermicronational ventures

Statistic-Dime and predecessor projects

Main article: Statistic-Dime

Skye is the founder and CEO of Statistic-Dime, which he formed on 24 October 2019 via the merger of his previous companies, Statistic-Fire and DIME. He served as Statistic-Dime's CEO from its creation until 2 December 2020, when he hastily resigned over concerns regarding his own mental health. He did, however, remain a member of its board of directors (called the Statistic-Dime Council) as the MicroWiki Secretary until 27 April 2021. Skye returned as CEO on 14 July 2024, following an agreement with the inactive company's four staff members.

While still at DIME, he conceived the Micronationalist of the Month award, which honoured a micronationalist in the MicroWiki sector whom public voters or Skye himself deemed as the most influential of that month. It ran between January 2019 and March 2021, during which its monthly poll for the micronationalist of the month was highly-publicised. For Statistic-Fire, Skye created Microcode—which assigned two-letter identification codes to micronations—on 16 April 2019 alongside coworkers Anthony Dickson and Jeremy Kyaber. It became the largest two-letter identification standard in the MicroWiki sector before soon falling into dormancy. Both projects were transferred to Statistic-Dime upon its foundation.

Between late November and December 2019, Skye collaborated with Jayden Lycon of Curio Publications to create DIME Magazine, intended as a monthly micronational journal. However, it only had a single issue with Skye's involvement, released on 25 December. For the magazine, a spin-off of Micronationalist of the Month, Micronationalist of the Year, was created by him and Lycon, which, as of 2024, is still awarded by Statistic-Dime. On 2 December 2020, Skye wrote a publication for Statistic-Dime called the "Top 25 Most Influential Micronationalists in the MicroWiki Sector of 2020", an ordinal list (leaderboard) of micronationalists deemed by Skye as the most influential within the MicroWiki community in 2020. It was met with acclaim.

Institute of Micropatriological Research: Micronational Dictionary

Main articles: Institute of Micropatriological Research and Micronational Dictionary

Adrianne and Kevin Baugh, President and First Lady of the Republic of Molossia respectively, holding a copy of the Micronational Dictionary (third edition) at MicroCon 2023 in Ypres, Belgium

After becoming interested in the history of micronationalism and the intermicronational community as a whole, Skye founded the Institute of Micropatriological Research (IMR) on 21 June 2022. It publishes Skye's Micronational Dictionary in paperback and digital formats. Inspired by his former MicroWikiDictionary website, he discovered A glossary of micronational terms (a webpage active between 2001 and 2003) in July and became motivated to resume work on a micronational dictionary upon seeing a large number of obsolete terms listed there which he had previously never seen. This made him realise the need to collect and document micronational jargon, "lest they be permanently forgotten" (as stated by him in the dictionary's preface).

After collecting and formatting several entries between 22–30 July, Skye had over 110 lemmas—including proper nouns and acronyms—by 9 September. He wrote the first edition of the dictionary between 15–18 October; consisting of 161 entries across 18 pages, Skye chose the simplistic and generic name as it was the first physically-published dictionary of micronational jargon. The second edition, with 211 entries, was published as an ebook on 15 May 2023, followed by the publication of the third edition—with 306 entries—on 11 August in a print-only format. It was unveiled at MicroCon 2023 in Ypres, Belgium. The fourth edition, which had 402 entries and was published on 4 January 2024, but available in both paperback and digital formats.

Editions of the Micronational Dictionary have consistently received positive feedback. Upon the publication of the first edition, many micronationalists expressed astonishment that there were even enough unique terms within micronational jargon to warrant an entire dictionary. Subsequent editions have been praised for their length, choice of entries, scope, professionalism and etymologies. Conversely, the choice to use syllabic hyphenation instead of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to identify the pronunciations of entries has been criticised by some, as has the definition of micronation—which has been at least slightly altered in every edition thus far. Many micronationalists have noted the dictionary's usefulness for new micronationalists who are unfamiliar with the community's jargon, and Skye's decision to release all editions under a free Creative Commons license has also been lauded.

Surveys

Surveys by or partially involving Skye
by respondents

• 19th MicroWiki Influence Survey (105)
• 2020 MicroWiki General Survey (63)
• Popularity Index (44)
• GUM Member States Positivity Survey (40)
• 2019 MicroWiki General Survey (34)
• 2020 LGBT Rights Index (34)
• MicroWiki Editors Survey (29)
• 2019 LGBT Rights Index (26)
• Dime-Curio Micronational Organisation Poll (>18)

9 surveys, 393 total respondents

Skye has conducted or aided in the creation of nine surveys pertaining to micronationalism. He began by conducting the contentious Micronational Popularity Index between 22 January–12 March 2019, asking participants to rank five micronations by their perceived fame. Although it had 44 respondents, the survey suffered from a lack of advertising, unorganised scheduling and was conducted solely via talk pages on MicroWiki. Owing to the confluence of these problems, the survey was completed and tabulated two months behind schedule to much criticism over its choice of scope and usefulness.

After a two-month hiatus, Skye conducted the MicroWiki Editors Survey between 29 June—1 July, with questions concerning people who edit MicroWiki. The survey had 29 respondents. For Statistic-Fire, he conducted an LGBT rights survey in August, ranking micronations by how progressive they were. It received 26 respondents and was followed by a second survey in May 2020 with 34 respondents. Both editions of the index were received highly positively.

Interested in the demographics of the MicroWiki community, Skye conducted the first MicroWiki General Survey, his last survey for the year, between the 9–11 November 2019. The survey, which had 34 respondents, had questions relating to topics such as communication methods, approval or disapproval of the Grand Unified Micronational, and micronational warfare. He went on to co-host the contentious 19th MicroWiki Influence Survey in January 2020, which had a record 105 respondents—the largest micronational survey in history.

Between 1–4 March 2020, Skye and Jayden Lycon of Curio Publications collaborated on the Dime-Curio Micronational Organisation Poll, which asked participants to rank intermicronational organisations. It was met with moderate criticism due to its small sample size of 18 participants. Skye later conducted the GUM Member States Positivity Survey—asking participants to rank micronations by how favourably they view them—in two instalments between 7–8 July and again between 9–10 July, which received 20 and 40 respondents respectively. His last survey thus far was the 2020 edition of the MicroWiki General Survey which had 63 respondents, making it the largest and most successful survey he's conducted on his own.

Micronational Rock Paper Scissors Tournament

Main article: Micronational Rock Paper Scissors Tournament

Skye is the creator of a series of single-elimination, best-of-three micronational rock-paper-scissors tournaments. The first, originally planned as a standalone event, was held between 29 July–5 August 2019, and saw 16 micronations compete. Hosted by his Organisation of Active Micronations, the success of the tournament saw it incorporated into the Micronational Olympic Federation (MOF) as an annual event. However, it was cancelled after the 2020 edition hosted by the Fifth Aenderian Republic. Skye independently revived the idea in August 2024, creating the 2024 Micronational Rock Paper Scissors Tournament. Sponsored by the MOF, it commenced between 24 August–30 September and had 32 competing micronations, making it the largest micronational sporting event in history by number of micronations participating.

Intermicronational positions

Skye has taken on federal, judicial, ministerial, public sector and local work in several micronations, running in numerous elections or by being directly appointed. His party memberships have ranged from both sides of the political spectrum, as well as satirical and big tent positions; Skye has thus been described as a mercenary.

Intermicronational organisations

Organisation of Active Micronations

Main article: Organisation of Active Micronations (New Eiffel Union)

Grand Unified Micronational

Further information: New Eiffel and the Grand Unified Micronational

Other organisations

Further information: New Eiffel and the Cupertino Alliance and New Eiffel and the Micronational Olympic Federation

Micropatriology and micronational history

Skye is a micropatriologist and aspiring micronational historian. However, his research in these fields have been considerably less developed than his Micronational Dictionary. In October 2019, he collaborated with Lyra of Little Skovaji to create the micronational compass, a two-dimensional chart representing micropatriological positions based on a simulationism–secessionism axis (left to right) and an organic culture–constructed/adopted culture axis (top to bottom). It was based on the Political Compass. Skye holds an interest in different micronational communities (sectors), a field he named sectorology. For it, he formulated the concept of a sector isolate—an isolated sector seldom, or never, influenced by other sectors—on 16 October 2022. Specialising in micronational slang, he is particularly intrigued by the linguistic differences between the communities, which is reflected in the entries listed in the Micronational Dictionary.

On 4 January 2024, Skye officially published his ideas on the historical eras of micronationalism, a concept he had been developing since 21 May 2023. In the field of micronational history, Skye is most knowledgeable on the history of micronationalism on the Internet, particularly between 1996 and about 2009, and the history of the MicroWiki community and its website. Research-wise, he is most interested in intermicronational matters, such as micronational forums (chatrooms), wikis, intermicronational organisations and online events. On 17 December 2020, he formulated the idea of the Big Three micronationalists—Kevin Baugh of Molossia, Paddy Roy Bates of the Principality of Sealand, and Leonard Casley of the Principality of Hutt River. Skye also described and documented the Seasteading Boom, a name which he himself coined, on 15 March 2023. Other words he coined include micronation nullius on 18 October 2022, macronational micropatriology on 25 March 2023, microgenitor on 8 September and locality nation on 2 December.

He has cited his biggest influence as Pedro Aguiar, and he also holds Bruno Cava, Fabrice O'Driscoll and Steven F. Scharff in high regard.

MicroWiki history

Skye is most educated in the history of the MicroWiki sector. His largest contributions have been to the community's history between its foundation and early 2009, which was previously obscure and entirely undocumented, and 2020. He has written extensively on the activities of Fabian Schneider, the founder of MicroWiki, prior to his foundation of the wiki, including his motives and the Maryland micronations boom—both previously undocumented. Some of his other early discoveries or writings include the September influx (a term he coined), the editors Perry and Jeffrey Hodgson, Wikimicropídia, the return of Schneider in August 2006, the "MicroWiki dark age" (a term he also coined) that occurred between November 2006 and August 2008, the history of the Countries United in National Trade and the original name of the GUM.

Activity in the MicroWiki sector

First impression, foundation of the New Eiffel Union of Micronations and the Furry War (September–December 2018)

Skye registered an account on MicroWiki on 27 September 2018, and made his first edit the following day. He was initially seldom active, and his principal method of communication was through talk pages on the wiki—a form of diplomatic outreach known as "talk page diplomacy". Skye also registered an account on the MicroWiki forums on 11 December, though he did not utilise them. He created the New Eiffel Union of Micronations (later retitled the Organisation of Active Micronations; OAM) on 21 November, seeking the creation of a community of smaller and newer micronations like New Eiffel. Gaining six member states by the end of the month via the wiki, it had greatly expanded both Skye and New Eiffel's diplomatic outreach. The organisation had eleven members by the conclusion of December, and Skye became close political friends with Anthony Dickson of the Islamic Republic of Hala'ib Triangle, Lahav Morris of Blue Army and Cooper Norfolk of the Democratic Republic of Seybold.

However, Skye's first impression to the wider MicroWiki community was one of ridicule; on 12 December, he engaged in online micronational warfare via talk pages with Aidan McGrath of the erstwhile Catholique Socialist Republic after McGrath declared war on New Eiffel because of Skye's support of the furry fandom. The incident, dubbed the "Furry War", consisted solely of exchanges of insults and threats against one another. The incident was strongly criticised by members on the MicroWiki@Discord server, particularly Abrams Wiucki-Dunswed and Norfolk, the latter of whom wrote critically about the conflict in the 75th Issue of Seybold Today. Following the conclusion of the conflict on 15 December, Skye and McGrath continued to hold opposing views for a number of years, though both immediately regretted the Furry War and regarded it as humiliating.

Immense activity on MicroWiki@Discord and growing popularity (January–December 2019)

An example of an @New Eiffel Government meme

Skye created the later highly-publicised Micronationalist of the Month award (which was focused on the MicroWiki community) on 28 January 2019. The award later contributed to improving his reputation in the sector. Nevertheless, he was initially ridiculed upon first entering MicroWiki@Discord on 7 February—creating an account under the username "New Eiffel Government"—particularly due to his initial alleged unprofessionalism and involvement in the Furry War. He was prominently described by members of the server as peculiar and "wacky", likely due to him never having had a social media account until joining MicroWiki.

He became more involved in the server and other micronations throughout March, regularly averaging over 3,000 messages on MicroWiki@Discord per week with a personal record of 4,756 enclosing the week of 25 March—or 679 per day. On 19 April, Skye became subject to the @New Eiffel Government meme, which revolved around users pinging ("@ing")—a feature that sends a notification to the targeted user—his Discord account on MicroWiki@Discord. This, alongside the growing popularity of the OAM, aided in Skye's increasing popularity and ubiquity on the server, particularly amongst the New Guard.

Skye's increasing activity throughout May and June, including his involvement in various micronations in the Discord sector, resulted in him becoming one of the most popular and ubiquitous figures on MicroWiki@Discord since the 2018 intake. Skye took his first sabbatical from the MicroWiki community due to what he cited as "personal reasons" involving his family life between 16 August and 2 September. In early October, a jocular relationship between Skye and Ian "Duck" (also known as Flames or Cyanide) began to flourish, culminating in a jocular matrimonial ceremony on 23 October that was held on a Discord server. The Charlington Press in the State of Gradonia (now a kingdom) dubbed it the greatest and "largest micronational wedding" of all time. The two later renewed wedding vows on 27 December. On 25 December, Skye, Leon Montan of the People's Republic of Ponderoda Hills and Anna Telford of the Federal Republic of Caddia founded the humorous, invitation-only social club TOES that eventually became its own sector.

Peak and subsequent decline (January 2020–present)

Skye in February 2020

For New Year Honours, Skye was bestowed a member of the Most Glorious Order of Millanian Excellence in the Millanic Confederation for his "outstanding service to the community." He was voted as his own Micronationalist of the Month for February 2020 with a total of nine votes ahead of three other candidates, being awarded chiefly for his work in the Grand Unified Micronational and editing on MicroWiki. That same month, he was the subject of the affectionate "Zedposting" meme on MicroWiki@Discord, wherein users posted miscellaneous text, images and memes relating to Skye. This included "Zedism", a comical religion based around himself—although he opposed this as blasphemous.

By March, Skye started to consider leaving the MicroWiki sector to focus on his education and mental health, believing that he spent an unhealthy amount of time on MicroWiki and MicroWiki@Discord. Despite this, he was appointed as an administrator on MicroWiki@Discord on 1 May. However, during the server's growing decline throughout June and July, Skye began to distance himself from the server while increasing his attention on national micronational Discord servers, citing the unprofessionalism of MicroWiki@Discord. Nevertheless, between 30 June and 5 July, Skye participated in the satirical TOES-Almendria War as a spy for TOES.

While Skye started spending less time on MicroWiki@Discord to pursue other endeavours in the MicroWiki community, his pursuits for higher political offices were ultimately unsuccessful. After this, Skye left most of his incumbent micronational positions between July and November, formally announcing his break from the MicroWiki community on 29 September. During this time, Skye's reputation had declined significantly as newer micronationalists found him to frequently exhibit attention-seeking behaviour, in addition to constantly seeking approval as well as espousing contentious political beliefs. He left MicroWiki@Discord in October, but briefly returned between 24 January and 1 March 2021. During his entire time on the server, he had sent over 50,000 messages.

While he continued occasionally editing MicroWiki—finally returning fully to the project on 28 January 2022—he never reclaimed his prior level of activity within the MicroWiki sector, focusing instead on intermicronational affairs. Skye rejoined the successor server to MicroWiki@Discord, entitled MicroWiki Community, on 9 March 2023. As of September 2024, he had sent over 14,000 messages on the server.

MicroWiki editing

Skye in June 2019, the same year he became the most-prolific editor on MicroWiki

Skye is a prominent contributor to MicroWiki, having made nearly 62,000 edits as of September 2024. However, he has considered himself formally "semi-retired" from editing since February 2024, now making less than 100 edits a month. As of 2 May 2024, he claims to have spent over 5,280 hours (219 days) on MicroWiki. He registered his account, "Noone", on 27 September 2018. He served as an administrator between 2 February 2020 and 6 January 2021, having previously been a patroller since 24 February 2019. Between 7 November 2019 and 4 December 2022, Skye was the most prolific editor on the website, surpassing John, King of Baustralia (who held the record for 207 days) upon making his 18,607th edit. Skye was surpassed by Varuna Sriraya (editing as Oritsu.me), Rashtradhyaksh of Vishwamitra, after holding the record for 1,123 days, when Sriraya reached 53,840 edits.

Skye originally edited under the username "Z. Luna Skye" until 12 November 2020, when he removed the period. On 3 May 2022, he changed his username to "ZabëlleNB", and on 24 August 2023, Tomáš Falešník changed it to "Noone" (with Skye's permission) in response to a joke he made on the MicroWiki Community Discord server. Editing MicroWiki on a mobile device, Skye switched to the desktop version of the website on 28 August 2020, having previously used the default, more simplistic version optimised for mobile. He also owns a number of other accounts, including the jocular Z. Luna Skye 2, Example—an example of a userpage that he registered to avoid it being registered by someone in bad faith—and his inactive bot, ZedBot.

Milestones and records

After seldom editing for his first four months, he made his 1,000th edit on 9 January 2019, and reached 10,000 edits just five months later on 7 June. He hit 20,000 edits on 5 December; 30,000 on 3 July 2020; 40,000 on 9 March 2021; 50,000 on 13 May 2022; and 60,000 on 1 November 2023. Skye was the first user on MicroWiki to reach both 40,000 and 50,000 edits. After having his edit count superseded, Skye was the second user on MicroWiki to reach 60,000 edits after Sriraya. Additionally, Skye holds the record for most edits made during a one second, one minute and one hour time period—4 edits on 9 April 2023, 85 on 2 May 2024 and 295 on 13 May 2022, respectively. The first two records were intentional; he achieved four edits in one second by editing simultaneously across three devices—making two edits on an iPad and one edit each on an iPhone and iMac.

During his peak, Skye was one of the most active editors on the wiki; by his second anniversary on 27 September 2020, he had made an average of 45.06 edits to MicroWiki everyday. He edited MicroWiki daily for 423 days between 16 October 2019 and 12 December 2020, ceasing only to commence a three-day sabbatical to prove that he was not addicted to the wiki. At some point in late 2020, Skye had edited 54 percent of all articles on MicroWiki. As of 2 May 2024, he has edited 14,556 individual articles on the wiki. He was the most prolific editor of 2019 and 2020, making 19,775 and 14,203 edits respectively.

The largest number of edits made by Skye in a single day was 728 on 7 November 2019; though the record for most edits made in a day is held by Falešník (editing as AtomCZ) with 1,215 on 13 November 2020, or Matthew Laptev (MattL) with 3,134 edits on 18 April 2023, if automated and assisted edits are counted. Additionally, Skye made the first edit on MicroWiki in the years 2020 and 2024 (UTC), and the second edit of 2021, when he was beaten by Falešník.

Other projects and contributions

As of December 2023, Skye had written over 800 content articles, created 2,500 pages (including redirects) and uploaded 1,000 files. Additionally, as of 27 March 2024, he had authored 27 "good articles"—articles which are determined by MicroWiki's editors as among the best on the site. This is far more than the second most prolific such editor, Jonathan I, fourth Emperor of the Empire of Austenasia, who has authored six good articles. Skye has also run several recreational ventures and events on MicroWiki itself which were subject to much community interest.

Skye ran two installations of an annual competitive game played on MicroWiki he dubbed Make the Edit! In 2019 and 2020. In it, users would make edits to a project page on the wiki and be awarded a score which corresponded to the duration elapsed since the previous edit. The objective was the obtain the highest score—the longest duration since another user had edited the page. The first game ran between 3–16 July 2019 and had six participants for a total of 35 edits; Skye won with a score of 71 hours and 56 minutes. The second game lasted between 8–18 June 2020, and had 11 participants totalling 82 edits; Falešník won with a score of 22 hours and 18 minutes.

Between 10 June and 20 July 2019, Skye ran banner advertisements on his MicroWiki userpage, allowing users to submit either serious or humorous promotional banners—both related and unrelated to micronationalism. A new advertisement would be selected about every week. These advertisements were free. Skye sarcastically claimed that his prominence as an editor on the wiki would make his userpage among the most visited on the site. Between 28 January and 5 February 2020, he participated in the Grand Theft Auto V affair, a sarcastic conflict between various micronationalists that occurred on a MicroWiki talk page. Between 17–18 April 2020, he organised the unsuccessful Twenty-four Hour MicroWiki Edit-a-thon.

MicroWikiDictionary

Main article: MicroWikiDictionary

In late March 2019, while working for his erstwhile micronational research company Statistic-Fire (later Statistic-Dime), Skye conceived the idea for a dictionary of micronational jargon, and presented his idea to MicroWiki@Discord in early April. Hearing about this idea, Karl "Luxor" Friedrich, the principal technical administrator of MicroWiki, stated that he could host a micronational dictionary as a subdomain of MicroWiki and operate with a wiki-based editing system. Skye supported this project, and on 7 April, MicroWikiDictionary was created. However, additions of new entries were slow; by 17 May, only ten articles had been created. On 10 May 2020, that number had risen to only 43 entries, at which point MicroWikiDictionary was considered by MicroWiki editors to be a defeated project.

Other micronational ventures

Journalism and writing

Skye is a retired micronational journalist. He wrote over 29 articles for six different journalistic publications in New Eiffel between 6 October 2018 and 15 August 2020, beginning with an entry for New Eiffel News and concluding with a story for Journal en Eiffel. His first non-New Eiffelic publication was The Bannerman Online, for which he wrote two articles between 18 March and 16 April 2019. He quit citing his own tardiness and supposed incompetence. Throughout 2020, he also wrote at least one news article for several publications including the Australis Times, MicroWeekly, OAM News, the Orblian Observer and the Ponderosan News Agency. Additionally, Skye worked as a contributor for Messenger and was employed at the Amerston Post, though he never wrote nor contributed any news articles while there.

In the GUM, Skye served as acting Press Secretary between 1 February–30 March 2020 while secretary Adam I, Emperor of Adammia, focused on the completion of his degree. In total, Skye wrote nine articles on the minutes of the quorum. He also ran the moderately successful satirical The Apple News between 9–23 January 2020, and oversaw the publication of 9 articles in English. It had four writers and was translated into three languages—English, Czech (which had 7 articles) and Afrikaans (1 article). Furthermore, Skye was responsible for I stole this. fun facts!, a series of daily posts of mostly trivia made to the Yellow Bear Micronational-3 (YBM-3 or ybm-3) channel on the MicroWiki@Discord Discord server between 2 December 2019 until 30 May 2020.

Business

In New Eiffel, Skye was the founder and CEO of numerous companies with varying industries, all ultimately focused on entertainment. He was the organiser of two annual events in the micronation: Win-a-lot Casino, a satirical pop-up casino, and the Surrealist Art Gallery, which exhibited art by New Eiffelic artists. For the art gallery, Skye created Soothing Ring of Fire on 28 December 2019—an abstract film consisting of 10 hours and 34 minutes of slow motion footage of an unchanging view of an electronic heater fan, largely reducing the experience of cinema to the passing of time. Skye found the red light omitted by the fan to be therapeutic, and likened the sounds that the fan omitted to that of soothing white noise. He also owned the jocular luxury fashion company and brand Jinxx Fashion, which produced shoes, bags, shirts and non-clothing items, such as a wooden stand. All products were designed by Skye himself. Additionally, he was also the founder and owner of the New Eiffel Registry Ministry, a government department responsible for registering and documenting culturally or historically significant structures and natural plant-life of importance in New Eiffel. Founded around August 2018, it had six registered structures by the date of New Eiffel's dissolution.

Personal life

Skye holds both British and South African citizenship. He is a devout Christian and a teetotaler—but does not advocate against alcoholic consumption—and identifies as an introvert, a workaholic, cat person, furry and believes himself to be a night owl. Skye is a cinephile and documents every film he watches, claiming to have seen over 2,521 feature-length films as of October 2024. His favourite films are psychological thrillers and he is very fond of animation as a medium, especially the films of Studio Ghibli. He extensively listens to music while writing; his favourite musical artist is the French electro-swing band Caravan Palace.

Despite identifying as a workaholic, he loves the outdoors and enjoys traveling, hiking and climbing. He has an extensive collection of over 70 stuffed animals, all of whom are citizens of Knuffeldierland. Additionally, his favourite book is A Christmas Carol (1843) by Charles Dickens. Skye has social anxiety disorder and as such is avoidant of micronational social gatherings. He is publicly apolitical and votes exclusively for satirical candidates in his macronation. Despite this, he has been noted for his support of freedom of speech, religion and expression, and been against censorship of the internet, also having a strong belief that knowledge should be free. He openly supports the Internet Archive and is opposed to most forms of copyright.

Notes

MicroProject New Eiffel