Venne

The Vennish Republic, aka Venne, was a state in the former Mt. Augusta region on CivClassic. As of Dec 12th, 2021, the nation consisted of the capital region of Venera, the small island territories of Berrybury on the border of Wesbury, a larger land claim to the island's South flanked by CSA to the East and South Augusta to the West, a Nether island mining facility to the North East of the capital bordering Laconia, and a homesteading settlement known as Shallow Valley in the deep -,+.

Venice and the Jeffersonian Confederacy
Venice, the floating city upon which Venera is built, was originally constructed by user Macndeeze (formerly known as TheOnlyMatt) shortly after his joining of CivClassics in 2018. Originally traveling to Mount Augusta (CivClassic), he was exiled from the city due to his involvement in an incident of civil unrest. For a while after this, he found himself living as a hermit in southern Mount Augusta, until he came into contact with an individual who owned an incredibly small chunk of land off the coast. Convincing the user to sell it to him for "like 10 iron ingots or some ridiculously cheap amount," Macndeeze sailed off to stake his claim. The island itself was roughly a 5x5 square of sand upon which Macndeeze would construct his city.

With his newly acquired island and an inventory full of resources, matt got to work. To begin, he leveled the island and built his home, which now stands as the guard tower, Venne's oldest building and one of its protected historical landmarks. He then set up the essentials for the time, such as a farm and a mine which is in use by the residents of Venne to this day. Over time, he would expand the area to include apartments, a general store, a town square, and more. With the city's expansion came the need to define its shape, and thus he began using the cobblestone he had acquired to construct a wall around the city, hoping to restrict builds and create a densely populated metropolis along the lines of Yoahtl's capital of Nixotlan, claiming that, "This would resolve the issue MtA had where it was absolutely massive and difficult to traverse."

Around the same time, the region was seeing the growth of the Jefferson Confederacy, a union of smaller nations clustered nearby to Mount Augusta. Seeking support and resources, Macndeeze applied to join and was graciously accepted into the Confederacy on October 12th of 2018. As a part of a joint venture during this time, they built an outpost nearby to a nether island North East of the city, which serves as the basis of Venne's modern claims in that area.

Dereliction and Griefing
While sporadically coming on to engage in projects such as the rail to Brodre, JC (now South Augusta) or the general maintenance of the city itself, Macndeeze's activity on CivClassics eventually faded in favor of the newly arising CivEx, which the Jeffersonian Confederacy largely shifted over to due to beliefs at the time that CivClassics may soon go down for good. Effectively abandoning Venice in favor of the construction of "NeoJefferson" on CivEx, Macndeeze entrusted the care of Venice to CryptoBlok, a founding member of the Jeffersonian Confederacy in early January of 2019. During this period, Venice would weather the throes of the server, being griefed at least one confirmed time and almost certainly many other incidents that went unreported.

Rediscovery
Somewhere around January or February of 2021, Shadowvdark logged on for the first time in months with the urge to explore in the Augustan region. Initially running around CSA, he took to the sea and shortly afterwards stumbled upon a heavily griefed and unreinforced Venice, which had laid empty for almost two years at that point. Deciding to stay a while, Shadow brought over some materials to attempt to revitalize the city. Not too far into this project, he lost motivation at the monumental task of fixing Venice by himself. Thus, for a few more months, Venice would be empty oncemore.

Resettlement and Founding
On April 8th, 2021, thatguynick15, a long-time inactive player, rejoined the server in the hopes of taking a more active role in the world by joining one of several developing nations. While previously a resident of Yoahtl, thatguynick15 wanted to start fresh in somewhere not as developed and without as much history. However, once he was joined by two other citizens of Yoahtl, Magic_Maya and Shadowvdark, the three set out to found a nation of their own.

Not wanting to travel far from the city, the three were lead by Shadowvdark back to 'Venice' and immediately continued refurbishing and repairing the buildings that had been griefed during the inactive period. During this time, the city saw vast changes as many buildings were repurposed for the trios needs, most notably the modern factory building which was originally an apartment complex. This time period also saw the wheat farm replanted and the construction of the city's berry farm. Seeking to rebrand the city and make it their own, the name Venne was formulated, with the city itself being renamed Venera.

In their pursuit of expanding the limited land available to the nation, a small island off the coast of then Wesbury was given to Venice by its leader, Orinnari. The city was affectionately named Berrybury in order to pay respect to its origins and now acts as the nations' primary berry farm.

After a few weeks were spent establishing their presence, Shadowvdark announced the nation's claims on April 20th, 2021, officially creating the nation of Venne.

Accession of CSA Tundra
In Venne's early days, it consisted of exclusively Venera's core and Berrybury. As such, farms were a major limiting factor, not to mention pure building space. Soon, though, Shadowvdark was approached by multiple neighbors with the idea of Venne acquiring a portion of CSA's new tundra territory, which Venne had in fact intended to claim a part of in their initial debut. One of these neighbors happened to be SandFalls, premier of the CSA at the time, who offered a slice of the territory roughly drawing the border vertically down from Wesbury's western border. After this was accepted, Venne more than doubled in size and gained what is now the mainland portion of Venera, the capital region.

Joining the Augustan Federation
In the weeks and months following Venne's acquisition of new mainland territory, the nation saw great development with the continued refurbishing of the main city area, a GOR route going through the mainland, as well as the construction of various new structures. In addition to all of this, the constitution was written and thus the Vennish High Council saw its introduction. All of this only fueled Shadowvdark's interest in joining the Augustan Federation, the premier alliance in the region. Thus, the resolution became one of the very first proposals to the council and in June of 2021 it passed with Shadow being elected representative preemptively shortly after. After some deliberation, Shadow approached SandFalls of the CSA, who had previously shown support for Venne's inclusion in the alliance. Upon clarifying some details, she proposed Venne's council membership to the Augustan Council. The vote passed, with all participating representatives voting 'aye'.

Period of Rapid Growth
Some time after joining the Augustan Federation, Venne would begin a program of outreach to new players. This involved advertising the nation on Reddit and Discord, as well as direct recruiting in game. The first Vennish citizen to be recruited by this was Juicy_Watermelon, who had spawned and died in Augusta. His belongings were recovered by Vennish scouts, and he was contacted and brought to Venne. Through similar processes (with notably less death involved) many others would join Venne, such as Fairbyfly, AlchemicalAngel, and penutbutter. Concurrently with this growth in population, Venne was also growing in terms of buildings and infrastructure. Farms, mines, roads, housing, and various other important developments were laid down and bankrolled by the Vennish government, which had become far richer during this period. In the spirit of this progress, Venne also claimed a large section of ocean north of their mainland territory which would serve as the launching-off point for a series of projects aimed towards land reclamation. During this period Venne was also joined by Elioto8, former Archpriest of Beret, after he passed the title to Shadowvdark alongside his home nation of Beretia. Wishing to start anew, he would found the southern settlement of Shallow Valley in the deep -,+. This era would see its premature end at the death of CivClassics on December 18th, 2021.

The Vennish High Council
The government structure of Venne was that of a direct democracy. The Vennish Constitution, ratified on June 1, 2021, was signed by all current citizens of Venne at the time. The document consists of a variety of rules and creates the Vennish High Council. The Vennish High Council was a body of three members, directly elected by Vennish citizens, that was in charge of governing the nation. This body was in charge of negotiating with foreign nations and could make other decisions with 2/3 approval of the council members. The High Council also considered proposals submitted by Vennish citizens. If the council majority approved of a proposal, it would be put up for vote to all Vennish residents. If the proposal failed, it was able to be amended and vetoed by the Council three times before it could no longer be proposed. Elections for the Vennish High Council were held on the first of every third month.

As of September 1, 2021, the current members of the Vennish High Council are: thatguynick15, Shadowvdark, and Magic_Maya

Venera Apartments
The Venera Apartments building was the first modern residency building in the city of Venera. Built by user Magic_Maya, the building had a total of 8 individual apartments and served as the designers residency in Venne. Many of the units had wonderful views of the ocean and nearby tundra mountains. The apartments were free to live in for prospective Vennish recruits.