Acadia

Acadia, officially the Republic of Acadia (Simplified Tahar: Dorei'Nothlir o Akkadye), was a nation on CivUniverse and CivClassic. It was a parliamentary constitutional republic, and one of the few sizable civ-nations to operate through (semi-)direct democracy. Acadia held ancestry from Adina, Moloka, Javaya, and Norlund, but was largely a newfriend nation with a diverse and welcoming community, mostly catering to a casual play-style. Acadia was founded on October 21st 2020, prior to the launch of CivUniverse, switched from CivUniverse to CivClassic on April 22nd 2021, where it existed until the end of the server on December 18, 2021. On CivUniverse, Acadia was a vassal state of Javaya. It had one of the largest populations of the server and was a notable exporter of hand-farmed potatoes. On Civclassic, Acadia was an associate member of the UDF and one of the key players in the deep northeast of the +,- quadrant, mostly through having the largest population in the quadrant and through its alliances. Acadia is expected to return for CivReign.

History
Main Article: History of Acadia

Acadia was founded prior to CivUniverse by Cortwade, who created the nation largely from Norlundish and Adinan culture. Acadia was established to be a safe haven from toxicity and a welcoming home for newfriends and casual players, focussing on building and roleplay politics. To ensure the nation's security, Acadia became a vassal state of Javaya, which brought protection and guidance in return for potatoes for their xp-production. As Javaya's vassal Acadia became involved in the New Vegas War against New Vegas and its allies, increasing production for Javaya, delivering a few fighters, and enduring raids from New Vegas ally Savaguard.

With CivUniverse losing activity Acadia migrated to CivClassic, where it re-established itself as an independent nation in the +,- quadrant. While it never experienced a major conflict like on CivUniverse, it suffered from the tiresome TNSC conflicts centered around the controversial player Rainie. Acadia became increasingly involved in international politics and became an associate member of the UDF with close relations to Columbia and Icenia.

Acadia has known five Prime Ministers; the first one being Cortwade (three terms), who oversaw the formation of Acadia, its culture, and the migration to CivClassic. Cortwade was succeeded by Bloof (three terms), who oversaw Acadia's increased role on the world stage and kept Acadia together through times of hardship. Bloof was followed by Kannon (one term), who reformed much of Acadia's legal structure and managed to increase activity. Kannon was succeeded by Owain (one term), who emphasized constitutionalism, transparency, and democratic values. The last elected Prime Minister of Acadia was MetalHusband (one term), who sought to increase newfriend recruitment and retention and kept the nation together as the server came to an end. On the CivReign beta-server, JuniorTide (one term) led and coordinated the re-establishment of Acadia as appointed Prime Minister.

Culture
Acadia was a very diverse nation, in part due to having a number of different cultural ancestors through some of Acadia's founders and citizens (Adina, Moloka, Javaya, and Norlund), Acadia's willingness to embrace cultural influences from nations it was close to (Javaya, Wyvern/Fish, and Columbia), and the large amount of people still fairly new to civ who brought organic growth of culture.

Acadian Spirit
Core values central to Acadian culture were a love for freedom, role-play politics, property rights, and capitalism, and many Acadians prided themselves on their individualist nature. These core elements date back to the very beginnings of Acadia and was mostly independently formed, though it could be argued that it was at least in part the result of Acadia's institutions, inspired by Norlund, emphasizing democracy and strong defense of personal rights. That said, given Acadia's cultural diversity, a significant opposing faction existed, mostly composed of Molokans/Javayans and Acadians who grew close to Molokan/Javayan cultural influences. The divide between those two sides was most noticable on CivClassic as the arrival of several Javayan players into Acadia enlarged their cultural influence considerably. Its effects on Acadian politics were substantial, with the more individualist Acadians generally arguing for decentralization and direct democracy and against large communal projects, and the Javayan Acadians preferring more of a guided democracy and a centralized state with everyone contributing directly to the common good.

Language and Religion
Another prominent aspect of Acadian culture was its use of Simplified Tahar, brought to Acadia from the Adina/Moloka/Javaya line, as the official language, featured in many official documents and titles. The language has its own vocabulary and grammar, as well as its own unique script. Despite the prominent use of Tahar, there were only ever a handful of speakers. Nevertheless, enthusiasm for Tahar persisted among its supporters and the language is currently undergoing increased interest and attempts to improve its documentation.

While Acadia never had an official national religion, due to the influence from Javaya and the legacy of Adina, Ashahari, a branch from Indoja, was close to a national religion as it was by far the most dominant civ-religion in Acadia and had become central to Acadia's national identity. Two prominent political parties were formed after Ashahari values, though neither of them argued for a theocracy or an official national religion. Followers of Ashahari believe in a monotheistic deity, Ashahari, who is one with the universe. While being a non-corporal all-encompassing entity Ashahari manifests through Avatars. Many Ashaharist tend to focus their worship on specific avatars, leading to the in Acadia dominant denominations of Peleism; where Ashaharist worship the Avatar Pele, the manifestation of Ashahari as a cyclical force of creation and renewal, and Lunism; where Ashaharists worship the Avatar Luna, the manifestation of Ashahari as a watcher against the evils of darkness emphasizing unity and harmony. Despite there being no lack of devotion, no Ashahari temple was eventually ever built in Acadia, although there were multiple plans to do so, including a large castle build with temple by former Javayan emperor Kalipso.

Apart from Ashahari some Acadians also practiced Melonism; a simple religion centered around the worship of melons, and Bezism.

Architecture
As many Acadians believed that everyone should have the freedom to build more or less wherever they want, even in the capital, but also supported an enforced Victorian build theme, architecture remained throughout Acadia's history a prominent and sometimes controversial topic of conversation, especially due to the fact that a majority of Acadians considered themselves 'buildfriends'. Traditional Acadian architecture was most accommodating to these beliefs as it was characterized by simple shapes, small dimensions, a love for the easily obtainable materials stone and brick, and a general 'less is more' approach especially regarding detailing. This resulted in a charming, cohesive style, as can be seen in (old) Turing, where it was born.

Nevertheless, as this style never managed to get off the ground convincingly in New Turing, Acadians began to experiment with other styles and eventually moved toward larger and more detailed buildings, though a convincing approach was only found when TheGreatUniter introduced a new style at the end of Acadia's history on CivClassic; larger, more detailed, and with heavy use of wood. By this time however, New Turing already featured many buildings in different styles and varying levels of aesthetics, which led to a generally incohesive and unconvincing urban fabric and damaged the city's popularity. Inspired by Uniter's new style plans were made to rebuild much of the city, but they were cut short by the end of the server.

Miscellaneous

One of the more visible examples of Acadian culture was the practice of g-posting and j-posting. G-posting was a cultural import from Columbia making way through Acadia halfway through CivClassic, when Acadia began to grow closer to Columbia, and Icenia, which also practiced g-posting albeit to a lesser extent. The first g was brought to Acadia by a group of Columbians after they had constructed their embassy in New Turing, building a large G out of dirt blocks. Some time after, a dedicated g-posting channel was added to Acadia's discord server. However, this cultural import was not universally embraced as a large number of Acadians would instead use the channel for j-posting in what quickly grew to be a large counter-movement. The rivalry between g and j would flare up many times throughout the rest of Acadia's history, leading to a lot of chaos on the Acadian discord, in-game demonstrations, and in one instance even turning violent.

For a while Acadia was home to an internationally popular video news network by Owain known as ANN (Acadian News Network), which helped put Acadia on the map for many people on the server.

Another Acadian traditional preference was naming locations after computer-science pioneers. The capital of Acadia is always named after Alan Turing. Other places have been named after Charles Babbage (the State of Babbage); Ada Lovelace (Lovelace, capital of Babbage); Ken Thompson (the State of Thompson); and many more. It was only near the end of Acadia's time on CivClassic that, due to a surge of renewed interest, new location names, like Mana'thalas and Brethil'mir, were inspired by Tahar instead of computer-science pioneers.

Economy on CivUniverse
On CivUniverse, Acadia was an economic periphery, with a client-state economy centered around producing goods for Javaya, mostly hand-farmed potatoes for Javaya's XP-production, potion ingredients, and obsidian. Despite the low economic development, Acadia had many small economic ventures, with Acadians keeping livestock, farming ice, and many specialized commercial establishments in Turing including bakeries, breweries, and a legal consultancy office. Regardless, Acadia remained a fairly poor nation and relied on Javaya for the import of high value goods such as enchanted tools.

Economy on CivClassic
On CivClassics, Acadia kept much of the capitalist and individualist nature it had developed in CivUniverse, and while in the beginning Acadians often had to rely on mining and buying high value products in Icenia, 20 minutes away, some Acadians quickly established private production of prot, XP, and potions, with The Lovelace Company and Steve Corp playing a particularly large role. Throughout Acadia's history it has also known several different manufacturers of enchanted tools, though the international competition in this sector was tough. As individual capitalist ventures grew less popular throughout time, national (collective) production of XP began to speed up around the end of Acadia's history on CivClassic, with national prot and tools production only held off because of delayed plans to build a small vault in which those factories would then have been housed. Around the end of Acadia's time on CivClassic, Acadia began to develop a small economy, now also hosting among others a nethertree shop and a map-art shop, and with small-scale private production of elytra's and netherite ingots. However, the limits of CivClassic's post-scarcity server economy, the geographic isolation of Acadia, and lack of international profile limited the potential of growing a fully functioning economy, and export remained an unsolved challenge.

Government and Political Parties
For an overview of election results, see: History of Acadia

Political System
Acadia was sometimes considered to be somewhat of a 'Norlund spin-off', as Acadia's governmental system was much inspired by Norlund's. On CivUniverse Acadia took the form of a parliamentary constitutional republic as a dominion of Javaya, while on CivClassic it was a federal parliamentary constitutional republic as an independent nation. The final Constitution of Acadia and its ten amendments can be found here as well as on Acadia's discord. The head of state of Acadia was the Ymir, originally called the High Commissar, instituted part way through CivClassic, who held the namelayer groups and was responsible for organizing elections. The head of government was the Prime Minister, who was the chief diplomat and presided over the Senate (I'Nothlir Farroth), the executive body, composed of all other ministers who were, with the Prime Minister, each individually elected. In the later stages of CivClassic, one exception to this was the Minister of Defense, who was then elected by the Sel'mean, a military council, who were in turn appointed by the National Assembly (I'Dorei Sabar). The Acadian Parliament consisted of the National Assembly and the Senate. The National Assembly was the primary legislative body, composed of all citizens, where people could propose and vote on legislation, which could then be vetoed by the Senate. The Senate also had the power to make legislation, with the National Assembly able to veto if a large majority was against. Outside of legislation, ministers could institute executive orders within their scope of discretion. The Prime Minister and the other ministers were elected for one month each term (not counting time between servers), with a limit of three terms for the Prime Minister. The Ymir was elected for six months, with a monthly vote of trust in the National Assembly. Additionally, while earlier a Chief Justice was temporarily appointed by the National Assembly when needed for criminal and constitutional matters, this later on became a permanent for-life position, evolving into a prominent national advisor to help the Senate and the National Assembly navigate Acadia's increasingly complex legal system.

Political Culture
Throughout Acadia's history there were many attempts to reform its political system, by people who sought to decentralize it, introduce radical executive transparency and institute direct democracy; as well as people who sought to centralize the system and reduce democracy. Neither side could ever get enough support for (lasting) change however, and as a result Acadia's political system remained balanced between the two opposing views. These two opposing sides often coincided with other political divisions; most notably the questions of whether Acadian politics should follow irl moral/political beliefs or adjust to what some believed were the less flattering 'realities' of civ, whether Acadia should try to develop itself competitively and work on large defensive infrastructure projects or remain a casual buildfriend nation, and whether Acadia should be isolationist and avoid alliances or seek to grow closer to the UDF and play a larger role within the +,- quadrant.

Ministers were subject to heavy scrutiny, and mistakes which could fairly easily be made given the complex legal system could lead a large group of Acadians to start an impeachment procedure. While no impeachment was ever succesful, a large number of them where launched or threatened throughout Acadia's history. Especially the office of the Prime Minister could be hard, as the burden of preserving unity fell mostly on them. Two Prime Ministers, Kannon and Owain, resigned or almost resigned and both refused to run for more than one term.

Despite the strength of Acadia's democratic institutions, the nation was for a good part held together by a group known as the 'shadow government', or 'the mafia'. On CivUniverse, this group consisted of a few Javayans and trusted Acadians, who kept things under control behind the scenes and set the priorities on the agenda for the Acadian Senate. While on CivUniverse the shadow government was de facto institutionalized, on CivClassics it was more fluid and consisted of a group of core Acadians with some of the Javayans now also belonging to this group, who used their influence through the Acadian Senate as ministers or advisors, rather than around it. After the workings of the shadow government became more well-known to the general public, this aspect of Acadian political culture came under heavy opposition as many considered it anti-democratic and thus un-Acadian. However, from the very beginning Acadia was always meant to have something like this, to make sure that democracy would not lead Acadia too far away from the path of reason.

A very visible feature of Acadia's political landscape was its many political parties. While many liked the roleplay and the 'aesthetics' they brought to Acadian politics and thought they potentially helped people get more involved with the nation's politics, they werent universally loved as some thought they did more harm than good by dividing the people instead of uniting them and keeping people focussed on discord politics instead of in-game projects. For the first half of Acadia's political history political parties served a real function, organizing votes and propaganda for legislative campaigns. However, in the latter half political parties grew more and more obsolete and irrelevant as people paid less and less attention to them. Possible explanations for this are that a consensus had quietly been reached on the potential harms, that people simply grew tired of them, or that the increased political polarization had the vast majority of Acadians entrenched on coinciding political fault lines, rendering political parties without real use.

List of Political Parties
On CivUniverse, Acadia's political life was dominated by three parties; the Progressive-Snow party (P-S), a left wing party focussing on national progress within the established system, the Solidarity party (S), a left wing party arguing for collective production, and the Libertarian Party (LP), also known as the 'GRILL party', a center-right party arguing for laissez-faire policies, with the Progressive-Snow party remaining dominant throughout CivUniverse. All parties were disbanded with the migration to CivClassic.

On CivClassic, Acadia saw a lot more political parties. The Ashahari People's Party (APP) (Ashahara i'Dorei Farroth), in politics similar to the Progressive-Snow party, was the result of the merge between the Progressive-Snow party and the influx of Javayans, who introduced the emphasis on Ashaharist communal values. The APP featured many prominent Acadians and was the dominant party for much of Acadia's history, until with the decline in activity from especially the Javayans its hold began to wane. During the decline of the APP a schism emerged after a disagreement on Acadia's role within a wider international movement of Adinan exiles seeking to return to their homeland, with the New Ashahari Party (NAP) (Gwain Ashahari Farroth) preferring to emphasize national unity within Acadia. Vying for power with the APP in the earlier part of Acadian politics was the left wing Workers of Acadia Party (WAP) (i'Cuin'Dorei o Akkadye Farroth), flirting with abolishing private property and radical system reform to centralize and nationalize Acadian political and economic life. The WAP eventually came crashing down as alt-raiding WAP-members brought embarrassment to the party and the party even ended up in a treason scandal after the First TNSC Crisis. The only party to eventually manage to rival and overtake the APP in power was the National Visionary Defense Party (NVDP) (i'Nothlir Tira a' Nidh Farroth, the result of the merge of the previously irrelevant Visionary Party of Acadia (VPA) (Tira Farroth o Akkadye) and National Defense Party (NDP) (i'Nothlir Nidh Farroth). The NVDP generally sought to centralize Acadian politics and to increase Acadia's role in the wider region but eventually waned due to internal disagreements. In a counter reaction against the increased support for a centralized government and economy, the Liberty of Acadia Party (LAP) (u'Nosson o Akaddye Farroth), the direct successor of the short-lived Acadian Trade and Prosperity Party (ATPP) (u'Nosson o Akaddye Farroth) and the earlier Libertarian Party sought to fight for decentralization and radical political transparency and direct democracy, fight against national projects and defensive infrastructure, and to ban political parties. Part of the same counter reaction were the less radical Democratic Front for the Restoration of Acadia (DFRA) (i’Dorei Nidh sil U’cae o Akkadye) and the Democratic Acadia Movement (DAM) (i'Dorei'sel Akkadye Sil).

States, Territories, and Settlements


On CivUniverse, no administrative divisions were official and Acadia was a de facto unitary state. No special or official recognition was given to settlements or territories other than the capital, Turing. On Civclassic however, Acadia had a federal system with administrative divisions, which consisted of Federal Territories, States, Organized Territories, and Unorganized Territories. Unorganized Territories were mostly unused land. Organized Territories were recognized by the Acadian Parliament as under the local governance of a governor, and were usually OMN-like build projects. An Organized Territory could be promoted into a State if it had three Acadian residents or more, and for the first half of Acadia's history on CivClassic they would then be granted a voting representative in the Senate. The Federal Territories covered the capital city, New Turing; the northern exclave, used for national xp-production; and the National Arena, which was built between the main settlements at the time of construction, New Turing, Lovelace, and Kanava; highlighting Acadia's federal character. Federal Territories fell under direct governance of the Senate.

Settlements on CivUniverse
On CivUniverse, (old) Turing was the capital city of Acadia, housing notable buildings such as the National Bank, Supreme Tribunal, Acadia Grand Central Station, and more. It was the largest city on the Hyperborean continent, a newfriend hub, and a regional hub for economics, culture, and transport, with the Acadia Grand Central Station being the largest rail station in the southern hemisphere and the Aston Tower being the tallest building in Hyperborea. It was probably one of the best looking cities on the server, with a unique and cohesive architectural style. However, Acadia on CivUniverse was less dominated by its capital city than on CivClassic, as it also had the thriving town of Serena; located on the south coast of Acadia, home to some of Acadia's more libertarian citizens and focussing on small-scale industries and freedom of building, and Norhaven; a small port town in construction and Acadia's southermost settlement.

States, Territories, and Settlements on CivClassic
On CivClassic, New Turing was the capital city of Acadia, situated on the island within Lake Elizabeth, featuring the Perseverance Square, the heart of Acadian life; the factory building; the skybunker; rail station; and ice road center. Even more than on CivUniverse, Acadia's social and economic reality revolved around the capital. Whereas Old Turing's architecture was low in height, New Turing increasingly featured larger buildings, with an ever developing skyline. Close to New Turing lay the State of Thompson, a countryside de facto residential suburb of New Turing; the Territory of Nordvest, a personal build project featuring Art Deco towers and an airport; the State of Babbage with the town of Lovelace, a settlement focussing on commerce and industry, which thrived during Acadia's earlier beginnings but eventually declined in activity; the Stonegate project, an early abandoned project to build a settlement consisting of a grid of bunkers; as well as Eden, a mostly underground settlement with a medieval theme and a large statue. To the east of Acadia lay the Territory and town of Kanava, built around canals, featuring a water tunnel connecting it to Lovelace; the Territory of Wilson with the village of Conway, which was to become a victorian countryside village; and the Territory / State of the Lewis Islands, with the settlements of Pajnitov and Mallorca. The Lewis Islands were widely believed to be cursed due to several separate incidents of Lewis Islanders committing treason as well as the fact that the islands were floating on water due to a world generation error. To the west of New Turing lay the State of Mana'Thalas with the old pre-Acadian town of Vanhoover, as well as the remnants of the pre-Acadian settlements New Jerusalem and Holy Tree.

Landmark Buildings
A selection of Acadia's most significant buildings based on their (im)popularity and historical and symbolic significance.

Landmark Buildings on CivUniverse

One of the most loved and respected builds was the Acadia Grand Central Station. It was the main transportation hub in Hyperborea, linking all settlements in Hyperborea with each other, and linking the continent to the rest of the server with a direct line to the motherland, Javaya. Built in typical traditional old Turing architecture with brick and stone brick, it's the main representative build of this style. The Aston Tower, built by Cortwade, largely followed these same architectural conventions like most buildings in old Turing. Housing a number of newfriend apartments, it was the tallest building in all of Hyperborea, dominating the old Turing skyline. It represented a move towards urbanization as old Turing was growing quickly in its latest weeks. Another landmark came from the same urbanization rush; the Supreme Tribunal building by Huntwolf, an example of Acadia's occasional flirtation with quartz. It was the only Acadian government building that was ever finished.

Landmark Buildings on CivClassic
The Rainbow Row, built by Bloof, was one of New Turing's most successful residential and commercial projects. As New Turing sat upon a large height difference with the surrounding lake, waterfront development was a challenge; however; the Rainbow Row's visibility ensured its inclusion in commercial traffic. It eventually became associated with the later rainbow hot air balloon and the gaybar as monuments to Acadia's LGBT+ community. Another important landmark was the National Arena, designed by Owain in antiquity inspired architecture, the first major break from traditional Acadian architecture. Situated between the early settlements of New Turing, Lovelace, and Kanava rather than in the capital, it was a monument to Acadia's federalism on CivClassic. Unfortunately, perhaps partly due to its remoteness, it was never put to use. Another building that never quite hit its goal was the unfinished Capitol Building, designed by Seekinq and central part of Cortwade´s vision for New Turing. As time went on the building became a controversial symbol of inactivity, and it began to highlight struggles with city planning as it clashed with the skybunker and the boulevard descending to the building clashed with kick-back traps. Right before the announcement of the end of the server, a plan for urban renewal was formed which would have had this entire area removed and rebuilt. Symbol of the same wave of urban renewal was the new Community Center with factories and large communal storage, built by Uniter, and the tallest building in New Turing. Finally, one of Acadia's most controversial buildings; the Vegan Steakhouse by Spleef. Due to its lack of aesthetic value and the fact that it was hardly ever stocked, the Acadian government wished to derelict this building. However, given Acadia's strong property rights, which did not allow for confiscation as long as the owner objected on Discord, and popular disapproval of what many saw as 'government overreach', the building led to one of Acadia's biggest storms of e-lawyerism.

Foreign Relations
Although Acadia's population was traditionally largely in favor of isolationism, against close cooperation with larger powers, and anti-WP sentiments were somewhat common; Acadia's leadership and 'shadow government' was always largely in favor of strong alliances with larger powers to establish security. On CivUniverse, matters of foreign policy were largely handled by motherland Javaya. Regardless, Acadia was part of the Commonwealth of Southern Nations, and oversaw matters on the Hyperborean continent as a guardian of the continent, which was largely populated by newfriends. On CivClassic, Acadia inherited Javaya's good relations with neighbor Wyvern, which was now Acadia's neighbor Fish. A Special Friendship Pact was signed with Fish, granting special citizenship privileges to Acadian and Fish citizens and establishing military and diplomatic cooperation. Together a larger alliance in the +,- quadrant was created; the Plus-Minus-Concordat (PMC), with Sussex, Mythril, City of England, Jomsviking, and Kallos, which lasted until the events of the Jomsviking-England Incident which destroyed the alliance. Additionally, Acadia was an associate member of the UDF, with close ties with Icenia and especially Columbia, with which integration into a larger Columbian Federation was considered though ultimately rejected due to suspected lack of popular support. In the last weeks of the server, Acadia joined the re-established UNC.

Military
With only a handful of decent to strong pvpers, Acadia's own military, the Maena-lamen, was relatively weak, though this was partly compensated by a few log-on pvpers from Norlund and Javaya. On CivUniverse, Acadia relied on its motherland Javaya, which took care of matters of foreign policy and defense, but without Javaya on CivClassic, Acadia established military cooperation with Fish and Columbia.

Central to the Acadian defense on CivClassic was the skybunker in New Turing, nicknamed 'the Octopus' by some. It functioned as a pot bunker, wealth storage, and a home for low-security pearls. Acadia was connected with ice roads to the Crucible, Columbia's main vault, which connected Acadia to the larger UDF ice road network; Rhea, the East-Columbian vault; and connections to Hyperion and Prometheus in Icenia were being worked on shortly before the end of the server. These connections gave Acadia quick access to securing high-risk pearls as well as a route for potential defensive reinforcements. Additionally, a small vault was being planned in cooperation with Columbia at the end of the server for low/mid-risk pearls, prot factories, and to increase the strength of Acadia and its allies in the deep +,- quadrant. New Turing's defense was strengthened with kick-back traps, with plans to install a defensive sewer system inspired by Icenia.

The official hierarchy of the Maena-lamen was established under Prime Minister Kannon halfway through CivClassic, who sought to mature the Acadian militia, institute a clear chain of command, and to depoliticize the military by making it a semi-independent institution. The official head of the Maena-lamen was the Minister of Defense, who was appointed by the Selmaen council, consisting of two Selmaen officers appointed for life by the legislature. Additionally, the Selmaen appointed two generals, traditionally themselves, who led all military operations. Under the generals were two squadrons, alpha and beta, each led by a marshall, with squadron alpha being responsible for most defensive and offensive operations and squadron beta functioning mostly as a reserve force.