I'm at the end of my rope

I think that you may be well suited by adjusting your approach.

I would first suggest that you create one or two small quests in Tawakoshi. A bounty on bandits, a marauding beast of some sort, or perhaps something less combat-centric. Have the that, put it up in the quests board, and leave it there.

Because one potential thing that may be a stumbling block for Tawakoshi is a lack of obvious things to do in Tawakoshi. If one goes and looks at the nation, yes, there is is, but what’s one to do? Visit just for fun? No. Providing a reason for a character to come is a good idea. Even if no one comes to accept the quest immediately, it will be there.

After that, I would suggest looking at the physical structure of your nation, and reconsidering how you might like it to be laid out. Bearing in mind what you mentioned about the players you thought would be helping you not doing that, it may be in your best interests to trim some parts of Tawakoshi out that you wouldn’t like to administrate yourself. The “smaller” your space is, the more concentrated your activity is going to be, and were I in your position, I wouldn’t want to tend to some city I didn’t create. Making a post on the Requests of Staff page, individual threads or whole sub boards can be archived. If whoever comes back, the relevant bits can be archived with minimal hassle.

As context to introduce my next suggestion, lots of players will often look at either the Recent page or the Overworld page to see what’s going on, and consider where they might like to play. Nations like LTS, where the last post was mine, three days ago (and there aren’t any other even plausibly active scenes in the region), do not stand out as active, and thus, are not at all appealing to new characters looking to start out on the sandbox, or existing characters looking for something new to do. The nations that stand out are the ones with green text, the ones with posts on them today. Preferably, several posts, updating a few times over the course of a day.

So, with this in mind, I think that it would be a good idea to use some of your own characters to begin scenes in Tawakoshi, for people to read, and so that the nation seems alive. Give it a pulse. Perhaps there’s some sort of holiday, so the daimyos are invited to the capital and there’s a feast. I don’t quite know what sorts of characters you have in Tawakoshi, or what sorts of things might be appropriate for them to do, but playing in your own setting, with whoever’s there, is important, in my opinion. Not only so that the place looks active from a meta perspective, but so the place feels good for characters to be in. Going back and forth with a nation account is only so fulfilling, and if the others aren’t going to be doing it, you’ll need to give Tawakoshi personality yourself.

Another thing you could consider is international play. Though your nation is in fact literally an island, it can interact with other existing nations on TFS, and you may be able create activity that way. Perhaps by sending a few ships full of some exclusive export of yours to a foreign harbor, to negotiate an exchange of goods. Something like that would bring Tawakoshi to the attention of whoever happens to be around to notice the ships, and then, depending on what the export is, the nation could then turn around and sell it in their marketplace, which would be sort of like advertising. Characters could use the product, and mention it in their posts, and such.

What I’m getting at here is that I feel like you would be well suited by taking the in-character initiative, and personally trying to start things. Players are not simply going to look at Tawakoshi, read some of its threads, and decide to send a character there because they like the threads. That doesn’t happen. Make Tawakoshi relevant in the grander scheme of the Overworld. Give characters a reason to be aware of Tawakoshi, and a reason to go there. Once they’re there, play with them, give them something to do, try to hook them up with characters that are already there, and try to get them started on stories and such, so you don’t have to keep babysitting them yourself.

Start the activity snowball yourself, and do your best to get it rolling. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s also not going to start itself rolling simply by you watching over it and willing it to start moving.

Of course, these are only my suggestions. I don’t really have much feedback on the nation itself, as I haven’t looked at it very closely, only feedback on your methods. But I also don’t think that the structure of the nation itself is terribly important in the grander scheme of things. When I looked at Tawakoshi shortly after it was first posted, it seemed quite fine. All I would suggest doing now in terms of the setting itself is trimming off the parts you wouldn’t like to maintain, because they’re dead weight. Empty sub boards with no posts in them make a nation seem empty, and that’s not a look you want to go for. Only keep what you think is important, and then try to fill that with things for characters to do.

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Follow Up Bonus: Ambient Quests

When a character enters a particular area, or does a particular thing, something happens. For example, perhaps a well is haunted, and screams when a character walks past. The well doesn’t have a big glowly quest marker above it and a bounty posted for it, but if the character is the reasonably competent sort, they might stop, think to themselves, “Hmm. What was that?” and investigate.

From there, one could develop things in whatever manner, and lead the character on a quest, even though the quest is not officially designated as such. Doing things in this manner, one does not necessarily need to involve sentient beings in a quest, or use rumors, or any of that. Having these sorts of things, even if they’re only small things, such as perhaps, finding a map that leads to another location, where something is buried - that’s still quite interesting, and would provide incentive for characters to explore. It’s an alternative option, aside from signs posted in taverns and giant monster attacks. In considering this idea further, perhaps you’ll think of something more clever than I, I'm not very much good at creating quests.

I will admit to a dearth of proactiveness on behalf of myself for the nation, my Daimyo's visit to foreign lands has stalled (you know who you are), but as far as outsiders being welcome into the city, and thus the nation, they are! There are even immigration offices set up to facilitate this. I myself am not overly well-informed on East Asian culture, so I chose the port city and watched Last Samurai a bunch. I do have a love for all things sea-related, and that is Quying's focus. So at least in response to Badger, let's talk sea creatures. The Wavewarden also makes her home in Quying, I am certain we can make something work in regards to that

Should probably just add a bit about the papers. Usually if someone tells me they have the papers I believe them. Nobody wants to RP paperwork haha. If u wish to falsify it or get in without it that's another ballgame but one that we can do no problem.

Worth noting that I am only representative of Quying, and am a different person from the owner of the Tawakoshi account. But both of us are willing to work with people to ensure nothing untoward happens to anybody that doesn't ask for it

Actually, having taken a look at the pages in question, I think you are a bit mistaken. As a foreigner the only thing you would need to understand is that the Emperor is a near divine being in the eyes of the populace, and thus his word is law, similarly to any typical feudal nation in regards to their overall ruler. Your character does not need to understand why all the rules are there, just that they are there. So long as the player understands that ignorance of the law is not an acceptable excuse nor does it absolve them of the crime we're good. I am more then willing to work with people on the laws and such.

If allowed I could host a quest. Or I'd at least participate in a quest you host.

Genevieve - Yeah, enchanted shops are no good, too...obvious.

Ronin - Shoot me a message with what you had in mind.

Badger - Gnomes are certainly fine. Fish-people too, but given Quying is a port city, why don'the you send me a message and we'LL see if we can incorporate them into the city'so functionality someway