The January 2022 Edition of Animalia Magazine was called the New Year, New Hope Edition mainly because everyone was hoping against hope that the pandemic was drawing to an end. But there was always the case of a new COVID mutation that would dash those hopes, so it was too early to say whether or not it would truly end. Fortunately, there was plenty to look forward to this year, both in the magazine and the other colonies.
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Because of the recent surge of overweight people coming to Animalia to convert, there was an article that talked about the "evolution" of the sin of gluttony. It was more about history and science than any real "shame", and thus was a very interesting article. What was probably the most interesting was the part of the article that not only talked about how gluttony as a sin was tied to the hedonism of the Roman Empire, but also debunked the popular myth that a "vomitorium" was a place where one could throw up to make room for more food and drink when in actuality a vomitorium was simply a passageway from an amphitheater, while also stating that ancient writers confirmed that Romans binged and purged.
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Another, smaller, article talked about the Guennol Lioness, partly because said statuette was one of those "great works you've never heard of". What was probably the most surprising of the article was the fact that the statuette was at least 5000 years old, much to the surprise of everyone who read the article. Of course, there were a few who left rather mean comments on the digital version, but these were understood to be mainly Karens or just ignorant of ancient historical art, so these were mostly ignored or replied with clever comebacks.
Lena, or Lizzie, in particular was surprised about how her nickname was inspired by an ancient statue, but she was more embarrassed about it because after she moved to Animalia, she was getting attention she was not used to at all. Normally she'd be the target of scathing comments, but now she was followed by comments directed toward how strong and sexy she was. She really wished she didn't, because she was more focused on controlling her new strength.
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The article that talked about new colonies for Animalia was actually several sub-articles that not only talked about new colonies, but also new developments in older colonies.
As an indirect result of the large number of overweight people coming to Animalia, there were a number of established colonies dealing with a housing issue. This was shown in Animalia Magazine as a "future plans" article that showed maps and concepts for the new housing developments (all accompanied by a disclaimer that noting was finalized).
What was probably the biggest two sub-articles was the details on both the Greek Animalia Colony, Aeaea, and the colony in India, the City of Kings. The one that talked about the Indian Colony not only talked about what would be present in the city, but also some of the history and mythology from the area. It was interesting to learn that Rajasthan was near an infamous mountain pass, which was used not only for trading but also for invasion, making the namesake Rajput warriors India's first line of defense against invaders, and were successful at this for 1000 years.
The sub-article that talked about Aeaea not only mentioned the original inspiration, but also discussed what had been found there, and the plans for the colony. This did result in a few clever comments.
Mister_Historian_Smarty_Pants: I'm glad that there's going to be modern plumbing in Aeaea. The Romans were stupid enough to line their plumbing with lead, then wondered why they got sick. A lot of the bones from Roman times were found to have high levels of lead.
Another sub-article talked about what was going on in the French Colony, mainly about the infrastructure since Belles Bêtes was now finished and officially open.
Speaking of which, Belles Bêtes had a very busy opening day, even with COVID restrictions in place. In just one day, Belles Bêtes had pulled in a lot of money, not only to the surprise of Miss Juliet and her girls, but also to the European Union. Not only that, but they also got a lot of new applications, both for conversions and for employment, and Belles Bêtes was still short-staffed.
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The final article was also a schedule for the Year of the Tiger Celebrations, as well as who would be competing. Also, for the first time, there was going to be a fan-suggested event and as expected, it was drawing internet trolls to the digital copy like flies to honey.
What was probably the most popular, in a matter of speaking, was a "cat-fight" between the contestants. While this was one of the suggestions of the internet trolls, the UFC-A were able to hammer out some ground rules and achieve a middle ground between them and the trolls. Above all, one of the rules agreed on was no sexual moves (much to the disappointment of several people) and there would be no skimpy costumes.
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As a whole, the first issue of Animalia Magazine for 2022 was a good way to begin a new year, even with signs of the times everywhere.