Acadia

Acadia, officially the Federal Republic of Acadia (Simplified Tahar: Dorei'Nothlir o Akkadye), was a nation on CivUniverse (as the 'Dominion of Acadia') and CivClassic. It was a parliamentary constitutional republic, emphasizing freedom and democracy, mostly catering to a casual playstyle. Acadia held ancestry from Adina, Moloka, Javaya, and Norlund, but was largely a newfriend nation, with a diverse and welcoming community. Acadia was founded prior to the launch of CivUniverse, roughly in October/September 2020, switched from CivUniverse to Civclassic in March 2021, where it existed until the end of the server in December 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 a key player in the +,- quadrant, mostly through having the largest population in the quadrant and through its alliances, especially its close alliances with Columbia, Fish, and the PMC alliance.

History
Main Article: History of Acadia

Acadia was founded prior to and for CivUniverse by Cortwade, who created the nation largely from Norlundish and Adinan culture. Acadia was established to be a safe haven from toxicity and shittery, and a welcoming home for newfriends, buildfriends, and casual players. To ensure the nation's security despite the lack of civ-experience in most Acadians and its casual playstyle, Acadia became a vassal state of Javaya, who helped protected it in return for delivering goods for Javaya's production of XP and other strategic operations. Due to Acadia's relation to Javaya it became involved in the Coalition War against New Vegas and its allies, with Acadia increasing war-time production for Javaya's military industry, 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 as on CivUniverse, it suffered from the tiresome TNSC conflicts centered around the controversial player Rainie. While Acadia became increasingly involved in international politics it became an associate member of the UDF with close relations to Columbia and Icenia. While still newfriend- centered and composed, it began to mature as a nation.

Acadia has known five Prime Ministers; the first one being Cortwade (three terms), who oversaw the formation of Acadia and 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 as a unifying leader. 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 Prime Minister of Acadia was MetalHusband (1/2 term), who sought to increase newfriend recruitment and retention and kept the nation together as the server came to an end.

Culture
Acadia was a very culturally diverse nation, in part due to having a number of different cultural ancestors through some of Acadia's founders and citizens, most notably Adina, Moloka, Javaya, and Norlund; Acadia's willingness to receive and embrace cultural influences from nations it was close to, most notably Wyvern/Fish and Columbia; and the large amount of people still fairly new to civ who stimulated organic growth of culture (not talking about mushroom farms).

Acadian Spirit
One of the things most central to Acadian culture was its love for freedom, politics, property rights, capitalism, and frontierism, and many Acadians prided themselves on their individualist nature. This core element dates 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, which emphasized these characteristics to a good extent. However, the vigor with which they were practiced, preached, and defended, mostly by an 'old' guard of people who were new to civ at the beginning of Acadia and remained active throughout, was certainly largely a unique aspect of Acadian culture. Of course, with Acadia's cultural diversity, a significant opposing branch existed, mostly composed of Molokan/Javayans and Acadians who grew close to Molokan/Javayan cultural influences. This divide between those two sides was certainly most noticable on CivClassic as with the arrival of many Javayan players into Acadia enlarged their cultural influence considerably, whereas on CivUniverse the other side was culturally dominant. This divide echoed further through Acadia's politics, 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.

While Acadia mostly never leaned particularly to one irl political side due to its large population and diversity, Acadia was known for being very welcoming to LGBT+ people, with strict enforcement of rules against hate speech. This was reflected in-game as well, with New Turing hosting a rainbow hot air balloon, a gay bar, and a street featuring a rainbow. More than once did these features help prevent unsympathetic people from joining Acadia.

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, featuring in many official documents and titles. Despite the prominent use of Tahar, there were only ever a handful speakers, mostly Javayans, and especially the 'old' guard of people who were new to civ at the beginning of Acadia and remained active throughout has remained reluctant to adopt the language. Nevertheless, enthusiasm for Tahar persisted among its supporters and the language is currently undergoing increased interest and attempts to improve its documentation and to increase its depth by instituting an original alphabetic system.

While Acadia never had an official national religion, on CivClassic, with the increased influence from the Adina/Moloka/Javaya line Ashahari, a branch from Indoja, become close to a national religion as it was by far the most dominant civ-religion in Acadia and 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, Lunism; where Ashaharists worship the Avatar Luna, the manifestation of Ashahari as a watcher against the evils of darkness emphasizing unity and harmony, and Melonist Ashaharism; where, heavily influenced by Melonism, Ashaharists worship melons, believing them to be closest to Ashahari itself as entities of pure and total wholesomeness. Despite there being no lack of devotion, no Ashahari temple was eventually ever built in Acadia, although there have been multiple plans to do so, including a large castle build dedicated to the Ashahari People's Party featuring a temple by Kalipso.

Apart from Ashaharism some Acadians also practiced Melonism, a simple religion based on the worship of melons based on their wholesomeness and believed universality, and Bezism, a monotheistic religion centered around the god Bez, who after his divine rule over Imperial Truidence, ascended to heaven.

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, to a small extent influenced by Norlundish 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. While this may sound unappealing on paper, it had an undeniable charm, as can be seen in (old) Turing, where this style was born and which was built within it for the most part.

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, far more detailed and favoring wood and terracotta instead of stone and brick. By this time however, New Turing already featured many buildings in different styles with various levels of aesthetics, which led to a generally incohesive and unconvincing skyline and damaged the city's popularity, and perhaps even reduced activity. 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
Perhaps one of the most 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. Not long 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 leading even turning violent.

For a while Acadia was home to an internationally popular video news network by Owain through The Lovelace Company known as ANN; Acadian News Network, which helped put Acadia on the map for many people on the server. Watch one of its news videos here.

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, which had to be mined on this server. 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 known several different manufacturers of enchanted tools, a particularly competitive field. As individual capitalist ventures grew less popular throughout time, national 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. As far as the limits of CivClassic's mechanics would allow it, 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, like the limits of CivClassic's server mechanics, the geographic isolation of Acadia and lack of international profile also limited the potential of growing a fully functioning economy, as export proved difficult.

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 very much inspired by Norlund's. Acadia's governmental system has remained much the same throughout history despite many attempts to reform it. 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 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 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, 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 elected by the Sel'mean, a military council, who were in turn appointed by the National Assembly. 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, with a three-month term limit for the Prime Minister. The High Commissar 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
Acadia was politically diverse, for both irl and in-game prolitics. Throughout Acadia's history, there have been 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 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 national infrastructure projects or remain a mostly 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 sometimes known as the 'shadow government'. On CivUniverse, where this term originated and was most often used, 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 this '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 belonging to this group, who used their influence through the Acadian Senate as either Ministers or advisors, rather than around it. While, as the workings of this 'shadow government' became more well-known to the general public, some Acadians came to heavily oppose this aspect of Acadian governance as they considered it anti-democratic, Cortwade, founder and first Prime Minister of Acadia, at one point admitted that Acadia was always meant to have something like this, to make sure that democracy would not stray 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 harms of political parties, or that people simply grew tired of them, or that the increased political polarization in the later parts of Acadian political history resulted in there being de facto two entrenched opposing factions with the vast majority of Acadians already having a final position 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 focusing on system reform and increased government control, and the Libertarian Party (LP), also known as the 'GRILL party', a center-right party arguing for more laissez-faire policies, with the Progressive-Snow party generally being most politically dominant.

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 the alt-raiding WAP-members Druid and JayTeeR brought embarrassment to the party and the party even ended up involved 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 politically less relevant Visionary Party of Acadia (VPA) (Tira Farroth o Akkadye), and the National Defense Party (NDP) (i'Nothlir Nidh Farroth). The NVDP favored an economy centered on state-capitalism, and generally sought to centralize Acadian politics and to increase Acadia's role in the wider region. 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 military 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 Civlassic, Acadia had a federal system with administrative divisions, which consisted of Federal Territories, States, Organized Territories, and Unorganized Territories. Unorganized Territories were lands that were not directly governed and were for the most part unused. 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 were used for the capital city, New Turing, as well as the National Arena, which was situated inbetween the three main settlements at the time of construction (New Turing, Lovelace, and Kanava), highlighting Acadia's federal character. Federal Territories fell under direct discretion 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, focussing on small-scale industries and freedom of building.

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. 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 country-side de facto residential suburb of New Turing; The Territory of Nordvest, Skraeyling's 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 fell prey to New Turing's magnitude; 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 and village of Wilson, which was to become a victorian country-side 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 are floating on water due to a world generation error. According to rumors, a number of NATO fighter accounts were logged in this area, and an old hidden Acadian bunker with great treasure was to be found on one of these islands. 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.