Odresh (CivRealms 2.0)

Odresh is a direct democracy in the Thomas Archipelago, currently led by Crusher6581 as O.N.E.A and Karpydasquid as Deputy O.N.E.A.

Pre-CivRealms
For Odreshi History on Devoted 3.0, TheRealmsMC, and CivClassics please see History of Odresh.

First Week
During Odresh's first week on the server, its members gathered outside of Kannin in Norlund, where they made a small camp in the mountains and prepared to voyage across the ocean, to the Thomas Archipelago, where some of the last unclaimed on the server could be found. They pooled their resources and bought the necessary wool and wood to build a boat, and were granted temporary access to Norlund's factories during this time. They then gathered their resources and began to travel across the ocean. lokilog and Crusher6581 were the first two to make the journey, although Crusher accidentally fell into the ocean and drowned as they were about to place the boat. Not wanting to waste any more time, lokilog made the voyage alone and landed on the archipelago later that day, only to find that it was bastioned. After continuing his travels, he came across the western island, which had been their original target. Here, he traveled up the coast and made a small outpost near the northern tip of the island. It was during this time that he met a member of Tchad, another nation on the archipelago. The Odreshis were originally concerned that the land they planned to settle on had already been claimed, but after another discussion with Tchad's leader, GetOwnedLibtards (also known as ZachAttack), they were given clearance to build around lokilog's original settlement. For the next few days, lokilog ferried the rest of Odresh's citizens across from the mainland as the outpost began to be developed into the town of Telunos. It was also during this time that proposals for the Thomas Archipelago Union were put forward, which would comprise of Odresh, Tchad, Bloemfontein, and Alexandria's colony on the islands.

Spring Decline
In mid-April, the Constitution had been ratified by the people of Odresh, establishing a government bounded by a foundational document for the first time in the nation's history. The first elections ended on April 22nd, with Crusher6581 as the only candidate for O.N.E.A. Karpydasquid was then appointed as Deputy O.N.E.A., a role accepted by all citizens but not yet added to the Constitution, and lokilog was appointed as a High Justice. However, after this initial reorganization of government, the nation fell into an activity low point, as had happened so many times on CivClassics. During this initial period, the only development occurred in Telunos, which continued to expand bit by bit as a commerce building called the Honeycomb and a lighthouse were built, along with a small port area near the community center.

As April rolled into May, the trough of inactivity was reached, but temporarily sprung back as a surge of newfriends joined the nation, pushing the nation over the constitutionally established boundary of 10 citizens for expanding the judiciary, prompting Crusher6581 to appoint Karpydasquid as the second High Justice, and sky_wha1e as the new Deputy O.N.E.A. Following this, however, the nation settled into another long decline into inactivity, with the primary reason being the lack of an Aqua Nether portal, making resource extraction in the archipelago extremely inefficient. The entire archipelago suffered the same fate, with little activity from Tchad and the colonies of mainland nations. Activity increased slightly in mid-June as Blackgold211 and lokilog worked to build the road network, but overall remains fairly low.

Constitutional Convention
Odresh held a constitutional convention, starting on March 30th, 2020, to create a formal governing document for the nation. The convention concluded with ratification on April 13th, 2020. In the three years of Odresh's existence across three other civ servers, they had never created a solid foundational document to govern the nation and had gone off of democracy. While this wasn't a terrible system, it meant that essential government infrastructure was missing until it was hastily added when needed, such as a justice system. It also set the bar for shifting power in government to a 50% vote, making it easier for one group to consolidate power. Seeing the need for a stronger backbone to the nation, with the creation of Odresh on CivRealms, the citizens of Odresh saw the opportunity to restart and created the convention.

Constitution
The official document can be found here.

Article I
Article I lays out the setup for the legislative branch of Odresh, which is made up of the nation's registered voters. This includes all citizens by default, but may be restricted by further laws. Article I describes requirements for the following:

Passing laws: > 50% vote

Declaring war: > 66% with O.N.E.A. approval, and > 80% without

Approving treaties: > 66% vote

Withdrawing from treaties: > 50% with O.N.E.A. approval, and > 66% without

Article II
Article II describes Odresh's executive branch, which is headed by the Odreshi National Executive of Affairs, or O.N.E.A. This Article grants the O.N.E.A. the power of commander-in-chief, and diplomat-in-chief. It also allows the O.N.E.A. to declare martial law, in which they may make decisions and pass laws without approval from the legislative branch, as long as those actions do not "bypass the normal processes for declaring war, entering or withdrawing from treaties, granting or revoking one’s citizenship or voter registration status, putting a hold on or otherwise interfering with legislative or judicial activities, changing judicial decisions, or performing any other actions forbidden by this constitution." This martial law can be ended by the legislature through a > 66% vote. When martial law ends, all changes made during that time will be reverted back to what they were previously.

The other main provision of Article II is that it sets the election date of the O.N.E.A. on the 12th of every other month, but does not put a cap on the number of terms one can serve.

Article III
Article III outlines the judicial branch of Odresh, delegating its powers to two high justices. High justices are appointed by the O.N.E.A. serve a life term until impeachment or resignation, the former of which occurs through a > 66% vote in the legislature. Legislation can be declared unconstitutional upon agreement by both justices, though at this time only one is required because there is only one justice. Article III also gives the first justice the power to create a plan for the nation's civil and criminal justice system, which must be approved by the O.N.E.A. and pass the legislature with a majority vote.

Article IV
Article IV describes a variety of miscellaneous restrictions on government. It prohibits the government from discriminating by "race, religion, sex, gender, national origin, or sexual orientation", and enshrines "freedom of belief, free speech, free press, free peaceful gathering, free protest, [and] free petition". In addition, Article IV requires that those serving as O.N.E.A. and High Justice must be registered voters, and declares that they are unable to vote in the legislature.

Article V
Article V describes procedures for ratification and amendment, with 75% and > 75% vote from the legislature respectively.

Article VI
Article VI is reserved for amendments to the constitution. The 1st amendment to the constitution was passed on May 2nd, 2020, and officially added the position of Deputy O.N.E.A., with the sole purpose of being the successor to the O.N.E.A. if they become incapacitated. This amendment also made 'High Judge' and 'High Justice' interchangeable for official matters.

Signatures
The Constitution was been signed by lokilog, Crusher6581, Seeni123, Karpyadsquid, sky_wha1e, and DarkEffect_TM.

Judicial System
The official document can be found here.

Odresh's judicial system allows anyone to submit a case if an Odreshi resident is the victim or the perpetrator, or if any player commits the crime on Odreshi soil. Each side will be given time to present their case, and may bring in legal help if they wish. However, such help with not be provided by the government. The case will then be decided by a 2/3 vote from the High Justices. From the initial request to the verdict, a normal case can last no more than 28 days, but may be extended under extraordinary circumstances.

Common Sense Clause
The Judicial system includes a provision that allows the High Justices to hand down sentences for 'action not explicitly described by the law, but commonly understood to be of criminal nature', such as murder and theft. This makes is so that the citizenry doesn't have to pass laws for every single possible criminal action, and helps close legal loopholes.

Geography
As with the rest of the Thomas Archipelago, the vast majority of Odresh's land is relatively flat taiga. However, because the forest is so dense, it can be a slight nuisance to travel through on foot and next to impossible on a horse. The immediate coastal regions see an end to the forest, with a small area of bushes between the ocean and the woods. In the southwest corner of the nation, a chain of snow-capped hills form the northern half of the Western Mountains, which occupies a large portion of the western coast.

Urban Development
As of May 2020, the primary area of Odreshi development is the capital of Telunos, which lies near the northern tip of the island. However, a few hundred blocks to the south-southwest, there is a large walled-off farm, as well as two animal pens, built along the coast. There is also a tunnel connecting Kaczynski, Solitude and Telunos. As of Early July a road network has been paved through the taiga, and with only a few roads to be completed at the edges of Odreshi territory.