Mount Augusta (CivClassic 2.0)

Mount Augusta (also referred to as Mt. Augusta or MTA) was a city-state around -6700, 3000, located primarily on a low-lying plains biome bordered by the sea. Mount Augusta was known for its sprawling city, democracy, and its advanced legal system and its propensity for grid layouts in its city, making it a prime location for trading, and a center for culture, travel, and innovation.

It was located north of the The Commonwealth, south of the Holy Jaded Empire, west of the Jefferson Confederacy, and within chat range to the north-east of Albion. It had a land area of about 2 million blocks, and had a modest population.

It had moved to its present location in late 2017, but has existed in some form since Civcraft 1.0, founded by Mitchellspakes and has one of the longest running histories of any city in Civcraft. In 2.0, Mount Augusta was reformed by LeonardU. It was a unitary direct democracy.

In late March 2020, it was announced that Mount Augusta would move to rival server CivRealms. Since then, the area formerly known as Mount Augusta has become a ghost town, with the Union of Socialist Augusta declaring it's independence and inheriting a small strip, with South Augusta then taking the portion of Augustan mainland to the South of the Socialist Augustans. The Northern portion of the city still stands, probably due to the sheer scale needed to substantially damage or recycle the land. To the east of the city is Mount September, a self-proclaimed Mount Augustan successor state.

Etymology
The city-state takes its name from its founders' attempts to randomly zoom in on places in Google Maps until a good name popped up; eventually, the founders landed on Alaskan Boundary Peak 183, named 'Mount Augusta' after the wife of an employee of the US Geological Survey, J. Augusta Olmsted Russell.

Pre-Civclassic
Before Civclassic, Mount Augusta existed in different iterations of various civ-genre servers. The very first server that Mount Augusta was involved in was Civcraft 1.0. Originally founded as the Augustan Republic, it became one of the most widely known cities, famed for its welcoming attitude and friendliness to new players. Despite suffering through wars, theater performances, assassinations, and corruption scandals, Mount Augusta in Civcraft 1.0 was marked by the unity and fraternity of citizens, regardless of ideology.

As Civcraft 1.0 drew to an end, Mount Augusta was reborn in Civcraft 2.0. During this time, it was led by many mayors, but the most famous Augustan leader of this period was Lord Mayor Prof_TANSTAAFL. During Civcraft 2.0, Mt. Augusta was involved in numerous conflicts, ranging from the feud with Gensokyo and related skirmishes such as the Goten Crisis and Fall of New Detroit to being a battleground between forces in the Libertas-Eden Cold War and later Nox War.

Mount Augusta's time in the short-lived Civcraft 3.0 was marked by intense cooperation. Led by Njordmir and aleksey_t, Mount Augusta quickly became a major player among the shards as an XP-producing trade powerhouse. This time would be short lived, however, as Civcraft 3.0 met its demise, and Mount Augusta moved on to Devoted 3.0.

Devoted 3.0 saw one of the most aesthetically stunning iterations of Mount Augusta yet, with beautiful curving roads, flowing terrain, and the heart and souls of its citizenry. However, much like other 3.0s, Devoted 3.0's time was limited, and the move to Civclassic was inevitable. Shortly before the end of Devoted 3.0, the citizenry of Mount Augusta agreed to move to an unofficial spinoff of Mount Augusta in Civclassic, the current home of the city-state.

Conflict with Tierra de Conciencia
Mount Augusta came to a rocky start in Civclassic. New mayor ProgramMC, was determined to keep the city alive and to bring the former players from Devoted to Civclassic. The city was established on the same island as another nation, Tierra de Conciencia. At first the people of Tierra de Conciencia were afraid of the new Augustan presence. In past iterations, Mount Augusta was a thriving and sprawling city, and the small nation was worried of annexation and overshadowing by Mount Augusta. However, the Augustan mayor, ProgramMC eased these worries, and there was peace for a time. However, then, tensions with the neighboring Tierra de Conciencia began to grow worse. Griefing and murders began to be commonplace within Mount Augusta and Tierra de Conciencia, and as a result, Mount Augusta's population started to die out. Tierra de Conciencia eventually annexed the former city. This period came to an end after Mayor ProgramMC, furious over the annexation, griefed Tierra de Conciencia's main city on the alt ManicMineman. Much of the grief still remains to this day.

Return of Mount Augusta
With no city and few active citizens, Mount Augusta set its sights on a new location. In November 2017, under the leadership of Mayor Ahrimanne and former mayor ProgramMC, Mount Augusta revived at its current location. The land mass had previously been claimed by now defunct Northumbria, north of The Commonwealth. Little is known of Northumbria, except that a small portion was in use by homesteader wjkroeker. This had also resulted in new set of conflicts, however this time, internally. After a short period of respite, the formation of political parties resulted in attracting ever more litigious players. The power struggle between these groups came to an end after the National Union Party withdrew from the city.

Without political parties, Ahrimanne and ProgramMC resumed taking turns as mayors of Mount Augusta. It later became known that this stability could be achieved thanks to the "Constitutionalist Party" (which most of the government formed part of at the time) that operated secretly in Mount Augusta. The Constitutionalist Party was dissolved and revealed to the public.

Decline of Mount Augusta
On August 8th, elections for Mayor were held. This election remains the largest in history by number of casted votes and registered voters. For the first time this iteration, neither Ahrimanne nor ProgramMC were running and Godomasta was seen as the top candidate.

ProgramMC would join the mayoral race later on and tie with Godomasta. ProgramMC triumphed in the runoff, but due to a new wave of instability, resigned after a few weeks, leaving Mount Augusta in anarchy for a few days. Former NUP members would take the opportunity to wall off the voter tree and attempt to take the city by attacking the vault. This attempt to seize power failed, and all those involved were apprehended.

Godomasta was elected as the new mayor shortly after, and was re-elected to a second term. He was associated with the "Godo Gang" political party in this time. Towards the end of Godomasta's second term, citylion managed to pass a law popularly known as the Fuhrer King Bradley (FKB), giving the Mayor wide-ranging powers, including legislation. Godomasta supported this law only somewhat, and only issued a few decrees before it was repealed by a much larger group of voters than had approved it.

Squareblob became the 7th Mayor of Civclassic Mount Augusta at the beginning of March. His term saw the annexation of Rhodesia and the subsequent crisis involving its vault, where a coalition, primarily comprised of Mir and SATO, broke it. He was the first Mayor who had never been a Judge of Mount Augusta before, and presently is still the only one.

Citylion became the 8th Mayor of Civclassic Mount Augusta on the 2nd of June after an extremely close election with incumbent squareblob. He passed the Constitutional Stimulus Package in his time, which changed the criteria for citizenship and hence voting. Citylion resigned on the 27th of June after Mirian attacks on the city, during his first term.

AllenY became the 9th Mayor of Civclassic Mount Augusta on the 3rd of July after defeating Gantoe_ with 80% of the vote. Following his victory, he resigned from his Judge seat as per constitutional limitations.

Citylion became the 10th Mayor following a close three way election with SandFalls and squareblob. A notable feature of the election was a last minute change of support of SandFall's voting base to citylion in order to beat squareblob.

Citylion won re-election on the 10th of January 2020 to serve a consecutive term. Two months into his term, Diplomat Dr Oracle started a recall thread for both the Diplomat and Mayor. Before the recall votes reached conclusion, Mayor Citylion dismissed Diplomat Dr Oracle and resigned himself. Before doing so, he used the controversial Mayoral Powers Act to pardon himself and others for an ongoing trial. Ahrimanne would later be elected to a third term in office on the 21st of March, and would be the last mayor of Mount Augusta on Classics, as a week later it was decided that Mount Augusta would move servers over to CivRealms.

[R] Resigned, [A] Appointed, [E] Elected, [I] Incumbent/Returning, [D] Discharged.

Post-Abandonment History
The Union of Socialist Augusta would declare independence some two weeks after the abandonment and take a small strip in the Southern half of former Augustan territory. South Augusta would also take a large portion of the South side of Augusta. The "Mount Augusta" claim would continue to be maintained for some months afterwards in spite of no legal authority governing the city.

Geography
Mount Augusta is located in the mid -,+. It is bordered by the Holy Jaded Empire to the north across a river and the Commonwealth to the south across a sea. Mount Augusta is buffered by Compton and the Jefferson Confederacy across another small body of water. To the South East are the split-off states of the Union of Socialist Augusta and South Augusta. Of special note is the borough of the Commonwealth, Albion, which is the nearest city south of Augusta, connected by sea bridge and Milltown to the north, the nearest part of the Holy Jaded Empire.

Mount Augusta itself is around two million blocks in land area, though it claims a great deal of sea around it. Its main landmass is C shaped, with the city's core being in the crook of the crescent shape. It is primarily plains biome, but reclamation has expanded it into riverine and oceanic areas, and it also controls some ice biome and nether islands further out beyond the bay.

Urbanisation
While Mount Augusta is unitary, it hosts dozens of informal districts, many with their own distinctive cultures and aesthetics.

Downtown
The historical centre of Mount Augusta, the Voter Tree at its centre is typically cited as the coordinates of the city (-6700, 3000). The Voter Tree is where voter registration takes place, and it is in the middle of the junction of hpoom Boulevard, the city's main north-south thoroughfare, and East Canal Road and West Canal Road, respectively the main eastern and western east-west thoroughfares, and named after the canals in their median.

The intersection itself is surrounded by, clockwise from northwest, the Augustan Trade Centre, the Holy Jaded Empire XP Cooperative, Hjaltland Industries, and the Mall. The train station is located under the ATC and Mall, and accessible from both.

Insula
Insula is a densely built neighbourhood, its culture characterised by a fusion of Cantonese and Latin. Its name comes from the Latin for apartment block, also meaning "island", insofar as such blocks are islands of city. An airship hovers over the main street, Via Insula, while the urban geography is characterised by tightly enmeshed buildings of stone and brick. There is residential, commercial, industrial and recreational activity. The neighbourhood is relatively new, founded in early 2019 by AllenY. It has a population of around 6. It is located in the suburban northeast, near the old Programvault, and at the eastern end of the Scholar's Tunnel which connects to Hpoom Boulevard. The nearby Mount Augusta Comprehensive School is sometimes may be considered part of or closely related to Insula. A metro connection was planned.

Margaritaville
Margaritaville (formerly Pinkerton) contains land that is open for development. It is meant for people who currently do not own their own private property, mainly newfriends or people who want to be citizens. It is close to the Voter Tree.

Principality of Sealand
Located in the eastern Mount Augusta bay is the Principality of Sealand based on the real life nation of the same name. Sealand has separate claims to Mount Augusta. A Sealand giftshop is located in the Romec Augustan mall and sells titles of nobility. As of October 2019 the giftshop is partially boarded up.

El Caro
Located on a mooshroom island west of Mount Augusta is El Caro, a small private island and tax haven founded and owned by Dr Oracle. It contains a number of grinders and a single small building purportedly built before any structures in present Mount Augusta existed. A circular fence surrounding the island demarcates the border and land claim of El Caro.

El Caro played a small yet significant role in the early days of the NATO-Mir War war as the host site of a NATO bunker. The ruins of this structure are still present today and accessible via a marked staircase.

Union of Socialist Augusta
Main article: Union of Socialist Augusta

The Union of Socialist Augusta (USA) is home to various districts of socialist communes. Located to the south of Mount Augusta between the old downtown and Francis Point, it is home to such places like Communist monument, and the Little Leningrad stadium. It was once a former district of Mount Augusta, but declared independence after abandonment.

South Augusta
See also: South Augusta

South Augusta was another former district of Augusta that declared independence after abandonment.

Politics
Mount Augusta's basic law is the Constitution of Mount Augusta, a document which details the judiciary, executive, voting rights, and other functions of the state. It was founded according to a minarchist philosophy that subscribes to the idea of a night-watchman state, aiming to provide military protection and courts to citizenry to protect from aggression, breach of contract and fraud while also safeguarding property rights. However, contemporarily, these ideals are challenged, and Mount Augusta has more of the characteristics of a typical democratic republic, perhaps influenced by the manner in which other democratic places with the rule of law in the world are rare and short-lived.

Legislation
Laws are not created or changed by representatives, but by a direct vote of registered voters, who are anyone in the citizenry who has registered to vote recently. This distinguishes Mount Augusta as a direct democracy. Most law is contained in the Constitution of Mount Augusta (of which the Bill of Rights is a major part) and the Mount Augusta Criminal Code.

Government
The government is composed of an elected Mayor, three Judges elected in staggered elections, and typically a Diplomat, elected or appointed, and a number of Cups, who form a Cupboard, comparable to a cabinet, all appointed by the Mayor. The Judges have the most legal power, as they interpret the laws and decide on conflicts in them, while the Mayor has some powers but is mainly a figurehead. The relative powerlessness of the executive (represented by the Mayor and Cupboard) is highly unusual among Civclassic and other Civserver countries, and is a result of the city's minarchistic philosophy. While political parties used to be significant in domestic politics, they are not so much any longer, and elections are generally on an individual basis.

Judiciary
The Mount Augusta legal system is perhaps one of its most distinctive features, and has a long history of robust function. There have been and still are disagreements among legal scholars and Judges over what sort of legal approaches should be used, with textualism, implied purposivism and common law being among them.

Economy
Mount Augusta is notable economically; it was voted most powerful economically in a server survey. Its economy is capitalist, emphasising strong private property, and involves many at various scales, internally and externally. It has several factory groupings, most significantly the Mount Augusta Factory Organization, but also Riverside, Insula among others. It has complete chain experience production, including most mob spawner grinder types, plains, beach, mushroom and river biome megafarms and automated gold and flower farms. The Bank of Rokko operates out of Mount Augusta, and there are malls and shops selling a wide variety of goods at a wide variety of prices. One peculiarity of Mount Augusta is that owing to its urbanisation, age and newfriends, it has a highly inflated iron to diamond ratio, which can reach 30i to 1d compared to around 20i for most other areas of the server. The property market is not as strong lately, but inner city plots can still fetch prices of several diamonds per block footage. It is well served by rail, road and water infrastructure, which promote economic with both nearby countries such as the Commonwealth as well as interaction with those further afield. The densification of the cityscape reflects the density of economic activity.

Demography
Mount Augusta has historically been the most populous and active country on the server, in previous iterations and in this one. At present, it is doubtful whether it holds this title, but it is among the most active and populous with over forty citizens, most of whom are active, and a smaller number of active non-citizens. Mount Augusta is noted for its openness to outsiders, and so its population is quite diverse, including newfriends, dual citizens, returned oldfriends and longtime Augustans with no dual citizenship. Mount Augusta in particular is known for accepting newfriends, and for oldfriends in other countries having spent time in Mount Augusta. However, in this iteration, it has had a low population of HCFers, and it has seen emigration of weebs to the weeb nations of the inner north such as Gensokyo, Tvtopia and Nyasaland.

Culture
Mount Augusta has a diverse and storied culture, ranging from Shardore Tower Library collections to its hosting the Fourth Olympics to its playing host to the notable public figure Gantoe_, who runs Nipplerock.