Aeginan independence movement

The Aeginan independence movement involved two separate attempts by two Aeginan dictators to remove Aegina out from under the sovereignty of the Danzilonan Federation (DZF), which was dominated by its most populous city-state, New Danzilona (NDZ). Both attempts involved the dictator of Aegina declaring independence alone, with the rest of the citizens of Aegina either turning on them or there being no other citizens of Aegina at the time. Additionally, both attempts failed, and NDZ successfully enforced their sovereignty over the swamp city, eventually incorporating it as a territory of NDZ on March 21, 2015.

= Background =

The land of Aegina was previously occupied by user Lost_ Tommy, who built two giant towers in the swamp, but not much more. Tommy went inactive for a while, and then New Danzilona took control of the land. Under NDZ control, not much was built on it except a fort and a few farms. Then, in the spring of 2014, power over Aegina was transferred to the new residents of it_needs_bees, Sir_Grettir, and a few others. They made an agreement with the NDZ saying that the Aeginan territory and government could be controlled by the gang, but the actual land Aegina was on would still be owned by NDZ. Trying to take the land away from NDZ or the DZF would be illegal. Through this transfer, Aegina joined the DZF and soon became a city.

= Early History =

After Bees came into power, Aegina started to develop into a real town. The original founder Lost_Tommy came back and joined the city. Many factories were built, along with a rail to NDZ and Eros Varos, another DZF town. Bees gathered lots of supplies and had plans to make automated farms, a wall around the city, and expanded road infrastructure. Unfortunately, most of these plans never saw the light of day or were only half complete. Many of Aegina's citizens also left to become a part of the SPQR. As the summer began, Bees started to not play as much, and development of Aegina declined as it fell into the hands of the other residents (notably AMBeaudry who had a really sweet pig farm).

= The Vale Incident =

On July 31st, three residents of Vale, jakemeister, strattmatt, and snorri raided Bees' home in Aegina and planted a diamond-reinforced Vale flag in the town. Bees had a history of harassing and sometimes griefing Vale, most of which took place around when Bees first joined Aegina. They had heard that Bees had not been around for a while, so they took this as their opportunity to get revenge. In the eyes of the Danzilonans, however, this was not justified revenge. They felt that this was an attack on the city of Aegina. The majority threw their support behind Bees, and nationalistic sentiment was rampant in the DZF. Within a matter of a few days, the situation was defused by the cooperation of DZF officials and the three Vale citizens. Bees was paid reps, and the situation was resolved peacefully.

= The Pearling of petlahk =

Since the town's creation, Aegina had always had strong relations with the town bordering Aegina to the north, Eros Varos. Bees had always gotten along with its leader, petlahk. They were the leaders of the two smallest (but still active) towns in the DZF, so they banded together when it came to small-town voting rights and how they were represented in the DZF government. Their relations were nice until a conflict arose in mid-August.

After the Vale Incident, Bees started rapidly expanding the borders of Aegina. He claimed a snow biome east of Aegina and named it Kall-Ö, along with a mushroom biome he named Mushroom Vista and a plains island named Regency. Bees was also on the brink of a dispute when he tried to claim land that was already built on by unknown newfriends. Bees' land-grabbing was very unpopular among the Danzilonans. Many believed that it was unfair for him to claim so much new land even though the land he already had was barely developed. Nevertheless, no one could really stop Bees, and he continued.

On August 12th, Bees started a territorial dispute with his close neighbor and ally, petlahk. Bees had begun to use a mine that was in Eros Varos territory and owned by petlahk, but Bees argued that the two agreed to share it, which petlahk denied. Decked-out in prot, Bees refused to leave the mine after pet had demanded that he get out. He then began to not even respond to what pet was saying. To protect his land, petlahk hit Bees with a gold sword and threatened Bees with lava. In retaliation, Bees attacked and pearled pet. The news quickly sparked outrage among the Danzilonans. This was a major turning point in the conflict with Aegina, as public opinion of Bees dramatically changed from supporting him to opposing him. They believed pet had a right to defend his land and that he was unjustly pearled. Bees ignored their requests to free petlahk, vaulted him, and promptly went to sleep.

This hurt his case even more. The Danzilonans wanted pet freed, or at least thought a fair trial was in order. Later that night, petlahk was broken out of the Aegina vault by the DSF, Eldoorn, and civilian supporters. When Bees woke up, his anger did not yet kick in, but when it did, he demanded that a fair trial was in order. The majority consensus agreed that Bees was obviously in the wrong, and a trial was not held.

Bees was told to pay reps for the incident since he let petlahk's dropped items despawn and held him unjustly, but he didn't do so until two or so weeks later when he was pearled by the DSF. Many agreed that Bees showed immaturity throughout the whole situation, and the faith Danzilonans had in him quickly dwindled.

= The Last Straw =

After the petlahk incident, most DZF citizens had no trust or faith in Bees. Bees continued to harass petlahk and the rest of the citizens of the DZF. Nevertheless, he retained power of Aegina and continued to develop it. He made a few recruitment posts, which gathered a good handful of citizens. He gathered more supplies, started to build more housing, finally designed and began construction of the wall, and expanded XP production. The idea of an Aeginan Empire came into Bees' mind. Bees claimed he wasn't going to declare independence, but the reality was quite the opposite.

In early September, Bees tried to move forward with beginning the talks of Aeginan independence. It was met by strong opposition by those who made the original claims on the land and those who have current claims, but a lot people were either sick of Bees and wanted him gone or just didn't really care. The talks were put on hold, but they were still fresh in everyone's minds.

On September 19th, the thought of Aeginan independence went down the drain when Bees griefed Eros Varos and intended to cause harm by spawning a ghast. Bees had been trolling petlahk and others for a while at this point, but this was the last straw. JPEGz, TheTrackball, and a few others attempted to pearl Bees, but he eluded their capture by killing himself and logging off. By now, Bees had been deemed POS by the DZF and was banned from Aegina. Bees' dictatorship of Aegina officially ended.

= The Capture and Recapture of Bees =

Now an outlaw, Bees continued to threaten NDZ with grief and political overthrow. As a last ditch effort to save face, Bees forged a conversation with petlahk in an attempt to make himself the victim of petlahk's conspiracy. DSF fighters caught up to Bees near Aeon on September 20th, but he jumped off a cliff and logged off, avoiding imprisonment.

On October 14, 2014, Bees was pearled and given to TealNerd to be vaulted as he awaited trial. However, he was freed on October 26th when HCF fighters broke into Teal's vault during an unrelated conflict, making him an outlaw yet again.

Bees eventually wandered onto The Islamic Sultanate of Istanbul and Samarra on November 11, 2014, where members of the Islamic Militia led by Soccer37772 pearled him and handed him off to Augustan authorities for safekeeping. Afterwards, he decided to quit the server and admitted to all his crimes.

Inscourge's Conspiracy
Following a period of stability, growth, and decline of Aegina after Bees' imprisonment, a former resident of Aegina attempted to declare the city independent yet again on January 18, 2015. Known as either Inscourge, Cygnus, or Bondle, he quickly retracted his declaration, claiming that he did not realize Aegina was still under DZF sovereignty after all previous citizens had left. Inscourge then attempted to revive Aegina within the DZF, but after a few weeks long hiatus, started to plan for Aeginan independence again. His plan was to imitate the terror attacks of Rancuneus, a griefer who previously destroyed much of Danzilona in late 2013 by covering the city in lava numerous times. He also planned who recruit foreign mercenaries to overthrow the government of NDZ, including GTAIVIsBest, who reported Inscourge's plot to NDZ.

After being tipped off to Inscourge's plan, the DSF banned him for entering DZF territory again, and, much like Bees before him, he was declared an outlaw. He defied his ban, returning to Aegina numerous times to collect supplies, and attempted to continue his recruitment plan not knowing that everyone he attempted to recruit was reporting his movements to the DSF. Eventually, on March 27, 2015, his main account was found trespassing in Aegina again, and an alt of his was spotted in Aeon. The DSF acted quickly, avoiding posting a bounty on Inscourge to not tip him off. In one decisive move, DSF fighters Des23 and JPEGz pearled his accounts in Aegina and Aeon, respectively, alt-banning him.

Aftermath
it_needs_bees was sentenced, with time served, to 6 months imprisonment by the citizens of NDZ on February 6, 2015. He remained in the Mt. Augusta vault under their caretaking until he was released on March 1st. After release, Bees laid low and never interfered in Aeginan or DZF affairs again, living a quiet life in the 4chan-claimed areas of the map.

After he later admitted to using a VPN to avoid the alt-ban, Inscourge was IP banned from Civcraft altogether, and NDZ decided to hold onto his pearls indefinitely.

On March 21, 2015, Aegina was demoted from its city status within the DZF and incorporated as a territory of NDZ, forever solidifying the city's sovereignty over it.

Author's Note
The person who wrote all this is Des23, who was a former city manager of NDZ and resident of NDZ for four months. Hopefully you find me credible. I believe all of these events have some sort of significance in leading up to the conflict of Aeginan independence, even if it seems like this is just the history of Aegina. Enjoy.