Grundeswald

The Kingdom of Grundeswald was a gargantuan, paradigm-shifting nation that existed for the majority of Civcraft 2.0. From its humble origins as a refugee settlement, to its ending position as the dominant member of a continent-spanning Empire, Grundeswald remains one of the most controversial polities in Civcraft history.

The differences in server structure after the end of Civcraft 2.0 were too great for Grundeswald to operate in a similar style to how it had before, and its citizens eventually drifted into inactivity, often finding the time to circlejerk over how great they used to be. There currently exists no active iteration of Grundeswald on any Minecraft server, although a few successor nations have been declared.

Etymology
The origin of the word Grundeswald is disputed by a few sources. Most Grundeswegians believe it is a corruption of the German translation for the words Ground Forest or Green Forest, reflected in the official Afrikaans translation, Groenwoud. Others believe it derives from Grundling, an uncommon demonym for the users of the website Newgrounds.com. The most likely answer is that it was completely made up by Ronald Grundeswald himself, but he refuses to say either way.

Ancient History
Grundeswald was the successor to Ancient Realms long forgotten from the memories of man. It was the continuation of the mindset that creativity and shit-disturbing are the keys to creating a healthy amount of server activity and spurring people into action. As the story goes, Ronald Grundeswald opened up a dimensional portal that led his followers, the Katars, to a new server, where their brand of excessive antagonism would not result in their immediate banning.



Civcraft 1.0
This first attempt at establishing a new home for the Katars resulted in failure. An important figure in Katar aristocracy, Kovio Khan, discovered that a tribe of relatives had been living among the strange peoples of Civcraft, calling themselves Prussia. Kovio, and later Killer_Chris, attempted to make their home among their distant cousins, but were disgusted by the fraternisation that occurred between the Prussians and the Civcraft natives. Kovio and Chris set fire to the Prussian capital of Danzig, and abandoned the first iteration of Civcraft, returning to the comfort of the Old World.

Istanbul
A second attempt was launched after the Fires of War and deception led to the demise of Civcraft 1.0. In this new version of Civcraft, Kovio and Greenkitten, another high-ranking Katar leader, found refuge in the settlement of Istanbul, atop a mountain overlooking where the city of Mt. Augusta would later be founded. Their time there was marked with constant strife and destruction, as both barbarians and religious extremists spilled blood on the streets and reduced buildings to ruin. The constant besiegement forced the flight of the Katars to greener pastures, but not before befriending some of the more agreeable invaders.

Vrystaat
Ronald Grundeswald met with his followers in the outskirts of Istanbul and declared that a Great Trek (Afrikaans:Groot Trek) had to take place. Armed with a pickaxe, the future King of Grundeswald, through endless toil and perseverance, dug in a straight line until he encountered rare gems beneath a small island, and called for his tribesmen to make haste and join alongside him. Once there, he commanded the construction of an underground compound, which he dubbed "New Zion," a place that would be free from the horrors of the outside world.



It was here that Ronald organised his Katar followers into the first buddings of a civilised society. He declared himself the Voorsitter and CEO of the Groenwalde Vrystaat, and his followers were added to both positions of government and the Board of Directors of the mysterious GrundesCorp. He also declared the Katars venture above-ground to build a capital city for his Vrystaat: Salisbury.

Brynian War
Not long after this emergence, the Katars came into conflict with the peoples across the bay in the cities of Bryn and Aurora. Bryn had recently established Aurora as its puppet state, and come into conflict with the far-off city of New Leningrad. Kovio and the rest of the Katars agreed that New Leningrad was the more amusing party to support in whatever the conflict actually wound up being, causing massive amounts of anger among the Brynian elite. Looking for an excuse to drive the Katars from their island, they found a casus belli in the from of a slur uttered by one of the citizens of the Vrystaat, and came to enact swift justice. The resulting war was brief, firmly turning Grundeswald away from the laissez-faire capitalist societies of Bryn and Aurora and toward the command-economies of New Leningrad.

Kovio and Chris, in an effort to find more allies in their aggressive neighbours, attended the Internationale, a gathering of communists, socialists, and other left-minded individuals on the server. It was there, during some kind of degenerate hippy drum-circle, that Chris began to call for the immediate destruction of Bryn, leading to the distressingly-popular song, Go on Home Brynian Soldiers. Despite the fanatical calls of violence, a group of Anarcho-Communists called the LSIF invited the Grundeswald Vrystaat to join as a commune in their federation, to which the fledgling nation agreed.

As one would expect, the addition of a quasi-monarchical society with fascist leanings into a group of Anarcho-Communists failed, to say the least. The Vrystaat would bicker with the rest of the LSIF on every matter imaginable, but hoped to repair relations by relocating closer to their communist allies-on-paper. Ronald Grundeswald launched a Second Great Trek, and so the Katars marched again.

New Leningrad Residency
The Vrystaat surrendered to Bryn and decided to leave the town of Salisbury and its island. Marching first to New Leningrad, they were invited to create an embassy which served as the capital-in-exile of the Grundeswald Vrystaat for several weeks. Relations with the rest of the LSIF were at an all-time low over matters of political correctness, but relations with New Leningrad were strong. A temporary union was formed between Grundeswald and New Leningrad in August of 2013, but geographic distance would make this impractical. Eventually, the people of Grundeswald made their way to their final home, across the mountain from the LSIF capital of Catalunya.

Independence
According to common convention, Grundeswald became an independent nation once more on the end of September of 2013, referenced in the first national anthem, Grundeswegians Never Die. This also marked the first use of the term Grundeswegian, replacing the Katar ethnic moniker and the Grundeswaldian demonym used in a few treaties at the time. The Grundeswald Volkstaat was declared, with its capital in New Salisbury in the shadow of the Tengri Mountains.