Order of St Marcus

The Order of Saint Marcus was a guild of builders and urban planners which focuses on constructing impressive or interesting structures across the server, and encouraged players to work on improving the look of their town or city. Anyone could apply to join the Order, and progression through the ranks is based on an individual's skill and level of contribution to the Order's goals. The Order's members are responsible for the construction of 250+ registered builds across 26 cities.

The group was based in Mount Augusta, and was founded in February 2018 by Logic_Man and Gobblin. Later in the map, the Order of Saint Marcus expanded to construct many buildings across the map. Saint Marcus refers to Marcus_Flaminius, an important historical figure of previous Civcraft iterations and a major player in the Maester Alliance - an order focused on preservation of stories and texts written in-game.

Goals
The Order of Saint Marcus had the following goals;
 * Construct appealing buildings server-wide.
 * Improve the cities in which the Order operates.
 * Support other members of the Order with achieving the prior goals regardless of borders or diplomacy.



Listings
The Order of St. Marcus had a major impact on building throughout CivClassic. Of the many buildings its members built, five are categorized as gems:
 * Shardore Tower Library, one of the tallest buildings in Mount Augusta, if not the server, that acted as the Maester Alliance's central library on the server.
 * The New Yoahtl City Citadel, a massive fort that held a trench and a thriving economy inside.
 * Ashguard Palace and Ashguard Temple, two megastructures built in the Ashguard Basin outside of Meditat town proper.
 * The Tower of Varkanos in Varkonia City, a tall clock tower towering over the country.

Additionally, the Order built guildhalls in many cities across the server had contained these builds, including, but not limited to, Mount Augusta, Iria, Verda, The Commonwealth, and Varkonia.

The order sponsored other miscellaneous buildings, such as rail stations, shops, government structures & embassies, gardens, and houses.

You can view the full listing of Saint Marcus builds here.

The Journey of the Placed Block
The Order's requirements to join are simply a desire to build, and never required a builder to leave their town of residence. If a builder was the first member of the Order within a town, you will be the guild master of the Order within that city. Members of the Order of St Marcus participate in what is called the journey of the placed block. The 'value' of a building was up to the discretion of the Fellows of St Marcus. Each member has a home city, but may build anywhere on the server.
 * an immersive building is a building which adds to the culture of a city or adds interesting exploring opportunities to visitors, an example could be churches, bars, inns, museums or embassies.
 * a government building is a building which aids the government or provides some roleplay ability to a cities government - such as courthouses, factory buildings, townhalls or prisons.
 * an additional +5 will be added to the value of any building which is part of a St Marcus building competition
 * an additional +2 will be added to the value of any building which actively displays the banner of St Marcus on it's exterior in clear view.
 * an additional +1 may be provided for exceptional quality.

The Campus
The campus was the HQ of the Order of St Marcus. It is located in Mt Augusta near Romec's mall. It is a combination of multiple buildings and shares a block with the Maester Alliance. The campus property held the following buildings: The campus is the primary focus and centre of the anti-grid movement. It is linked to other players blocks via the Tunnel of Love, Terrace of Acacia, Tenpo lane tunnel and the Garden of Eden.
 * Oosm reffelruzhouse.png_Man's residence - the original building on the block, home of Founder of the Order of St Marcus and member of the Maester Alliance Council Logic_Man, it is also the residence of Gobblin.
 * Mt Augusta guild hall - the Mt Augusta guild hall is located beside Logic_Man's house and contains beds for members of St Marcus and a chestroom for transfer of items between members that may contain blocks for builds.
 * The statue of St Marcus.
 * Mulificus School of Records - This building originally held a chicken farm but is now vacant, it sits beside Logic_Man's residence.
 * Diamond Crisis monument - This monument recognises the diamond crisis that rocked the server in early 2018.
 * The Mt Augustan monument - This monument recognises the tomb that the first president of Mount Augusta, mitchellspakes built to entomb a raider.
 * St Marcus opportunity shop - This building is used as a shop when the order has an excess of a particular item or is in need of a particular block for projects. It is current inactive. The building above the shop holds St Marcus secrets and is closed to the public.

Shardore Tower
Shardore Tower is the tallest building in Mt Augusta and holds the Shardore Tower Library on Level 1, Observation deck on Level 2, Club 66 on Level 3 and Maester Alliance facilities on Level 4 & 5. Levels 2-5 are currently closed and awaiting minor renovations. It holds a value within the Order of 25.



Buildings of Saint Marcus
Guildhalls

Towns that join the Order of Saint Marcus are encouraged to create guildhalls for the Order. Guildhalls should have the following elements to them:


 * Architecture: The guildhall should be styled as to fit into it's surroundings as best as possible - As these Guildhalls represent the Order in-game, they should be created as to impress visitors. This could be achieved through a well detailed interior/exterior, size, towers etc;.
 * The Cross: The cross of Saint Marcus should be displayed proudly on the exterior of the building. The flag can also be integrated into the building - see the Guildhall of Varkonia in Salisbury, Gabon for an example of this.
 * The Table - Guildhalls should include a table to provide for meetings between the Directors of Saint Marcus and members of the lodge.
 * The Wall - Upon one wall of the lodges' interior should be a listing of all the current Fellows of the Order.

Additionally, a discord invite link should be posted and a broad overview of what the Order of Saint Marcus does.

Hall of the Fellow

[ details coming soon ]

Initiatives
The Anti-Grid movement of Mt Augusta

The Order had a focus on making Mount Augusta look more like a city, and less like a creative server by implementing buildings that mount or modify the road in a way that allow for a more fluid transition between different player's blocks. The current progress undertaken by the Order includes: Unity Terrace (collaboration with Romec), Tunnel of Love (collaboration with Romec), May 2018 Order of St Marcus and Maester Alliance assembly redevelopment, Terrace of Acacia (collaboration with scramble0), Tunnel on Tenpo Lane, Tunnel to scramble0's plot (collaboration with scramble0), The Garden of Eden (collaboration with the Maester Alliance).

Historical Roots and Connection with the Maester Alliance
The Maester Alliance is an ancient guild of writers and archivists which focuses on recording the histories of the Ages, preserving literature, and encouraging players to write and produce cultural works. The Alliance dates back to the First Age of Civcraft, and is a well-respected institution in its own right.

The Order was established during the 'long night', a period of time between Civcraft 3.0 and the Second Era of CivClassic where the majority of Maesters fell into eternal slumber and the torch of the Alliance was passed through the Ages by one or two individuals. During the latter part of this timespan, one of the last Maesters joined forces with a skilled architect to plant the seed of a new, culturally focused group for the Civ-genre. Grand Maester Marcus_Flaminius was named patron saint of the group, in recognition of the significant time commitment and effort given by this player to the Alliance across the Ages, and in memory of his then apparent eternal slumber.

The Order therefore shares a common root system with the Maester Alliance, although it is a much younger group in comparison, and functions as a ‘sister’ guild; both groups co-exist and collaborate on some projects, but ultimately have separate goals. Players are welcome to join either or both.