Acadia: Difference between revisions

Acadia was a very diverse nation, in part due to having a number of different cultural ancestors through some of Acadia's founders and citizens (Adina, [[Moloka]], Javaya, and Norlund), Acadia's willingness to embrace cultural influences from nations it was close to (Javaya, [[Wyvern]]/Fish, and Columbia), and the large amount of people still fairly new to civ who brought organic growth of culture.

 

Core values central to Acadian culture were a love for freedom, role-play politics, property rights, and capitalism, and many Acadians prided themselves on their individualist nature. These core elements date 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, emphasizing democracy and strong defense of personal rights. That said, given Acadia's cultural diversity, a significant opposing faction existed, mostly composed of Molokans/Javayans and Acadians who grew close to Molokan/Javayan cultural influences. The divide between those two sides was most noticable on CivClassic as the arrival of several Javayan players into Acadia enlarged their cultural influence considerably. Its effects on Acadian politics were substantial, 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.

 

Another prominent aspect of Acadian culture was its use of [[Tahar|Simplified Tahar]], brought to Acadia from the Adina/Moloka/Javaya line, as the official language, featured in many official documents and titles. The language has its own vocabulary and grammar, as well as its own unique script.<ref>The script can be downloaded as a text font: [https://discord.com/channels/768259087133048882/768259909078220841/928045068596699247 link] (discord message)</ref> Despite the prominent use of Tahar, there were only ever a handful of speakers. Nevertheless, enthusiasm for Tahar persisted among its supporters and the language is currently undergoing increased interest and attempts to improve its documentation.<ref>Announcement of the Tahar Synod: [https://imgur.com/a/MjROmCk link] (imgur of discord message)</ref>

 

[[File:Another Render of Old Turing .png|left|thumb|244x244px|Render of Turing, made by [[Vanax]]]]

 

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 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. This resulted in a charming, cohesive style, as can be seen in (old) Turing, where it was born.

 

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; larger, more detailed, and with heavy use of wood. By this time however, New Turing already featured many buildings in different styles and varying levels of aesthetics, which led to a generally incohesive and unconvincing urban fabric and damaged the city's popularity. 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.

 

One of the more 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. Some time after, a dedicated g-posting channel was added to Acadia's discord server.<ref>Start of the g-posting channel: [https://imgur.com/a/lxX9icn link] (imgur of discord message)</ref> 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 even turning violent.

 

== Economy ==

 

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. 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.

 

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 also known several different manufacturers of enchanted tools, though the international competition in this sector was tough. As individual capitalist ventures grew less popular throughout time, national (collective) 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. Around the end of Acadia's time on CivClassic, 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, the limits of CivClassic's post-scarcity server economy, the geographic isolation of Acadia, and lack of international profile limited the potential of growing a fully functioning economy, and export remained an unsolved challenge.

 

== Government and Political Parties ==

''For an overview of election results, see: [[History of Acadia]]''

[[File:Acadiaball politics.png|thumb|287x287px|Politics Acadiaball, made by Bloof]]Acadia was sometimes considered to be somewhat of a 'Norlund spin-off', as Acadia's governmental system was much inspired by Norlund's. 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 final Constitution of Acadia and its ten amendments can be found [https://sites.google.com/view/acadialii/home here] as well as on Acadia's discord. The head of state of Acadia was the Ymir, originally called the High Commissar, instituted part way through CivClassic, who held the namelayer groups and was responsible for organizing elections.<ref>The Seventh Amendment: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/17dmfKy3pdeOFRoO-mNUtH5ms9qoqXkmEGmzgKA6zcVM/edit link] (Google document)</ref> The head of government was the Prime Minister, who was the chief diplomat and presided over the Senate (''I'Nothlir Farroth''), 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 then elected by the Sel'mean, a military council, who were in turn appointed by the National Assembly (''I'Dorei Sabar''). The Acadian Parliament consisted of the National Assembly and the Senate. 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 (not counting time between servers), with a limit of three terms for the Prime Minister. The Ymir 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.

 

Throughout Acadia's history there were 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/political 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 defensive infrastructure projects or remain a 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.

 

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 Civclassic however, Acadia had a federal system with administrative divisions, which consisted of Federal Territories, States, Organized Territories, and Unorganized Territories. Unorganized Territories were mostly unused land. 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 covered the capital city, New Turing; the northern exclave, used for national xp-production; and the National Arena, which was built between the main settlements at the time of construction, New Turing, Lovelace, and Kanava; highlighting Acadia's federal character. Federal Territories fell under direct governance of the Senate.

 

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 and focussing on small-scale industries and freedom of building, and '''Norhaven'''; a small port town in construction and Acadia's southermost settlement.

 

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. Even 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 countryside de facto residential suburb of New Turing; the Territory of '''Nordvest''', a 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 declined in activity; 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 of '''Wilson''' with the village of '''Conway''', which was to become a victorian countryside 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 were floating on water due to a world generation error. 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 (CivClassic)|Holy Tree]]'''.

 

''A selection of Acadia's most significant buildings based on their (im)popularity and historical and symbolic significance.''

 

 

One of the most loved and respected builds was the '''Acadia Grand Central Station'''. It was the main transportation hub in Hyperborea, linking all settlements in Hyperborea with each other, and linking the continent to the rest of the server with a direct line to the motherland, Javaya. Built in typical traditional old Turing architecture with brick and stone brick, it's the main representative build of this style. The '''Aston Tower''', built by Cortwade, largely followed these same architectural conventions like most buildings in old Turing. Housing a number of newfriend apartments, it was the tallest building in all of Hyperborea, dominating the old Turing skyline. It represented a move towards urbanization as old Turing was growing quickly in its latest weeks. Another landmark came from the same urbanization rush; the '''Supreme Tribunal''' building by [[Huntwolf]], an example of Acadia's occasional flirtation with quartz. It was the only Acadian government building that was ever finished.[[File:New Turing screenshot.png|thumb|342x342px|The Community Center and the Columbian embassy in New Turing]]

 

The '''Rainbow Row''', built by Bloof, was one of New Turing's most successful residential and commercial projects. As New Turing sat upon a large height difference with the surrounding lake, waterfront development was a challenge; however; the Rainbow Row's visibility ensured its inclusion in commercial traffic. It eventually became associated with the later rainbow hot air balloon and the gaybar as monuments to Acadia's LGBT+ community. Another important landmark was the '''National Arena,''' designed by Owain in antiquity inspired architecture, the first major break from traditional Acadian architecture. Situated between the early settlements of New Turing, Lovelace, and Kanava rather than in the capital, it was a monument to Acadia's federalism on CivClassic. Unfortunately, perhaps partly due to its remoteness, it was never put to use. Another building that never quite hit its goal was the unfinished '''Capitol Building''', designed by [[Seekinq]] and central part of Cortwade´s vision for New Turing. As time went on the building became a controversial symbol of inactivity, and it began to highlight struggles with city planning as it clashed with the skybunker and the boulevard descending to the building clashed with kick-back traps. Right before the announcement of the end of the server, a plan for urban renewal was formed which would have had this entire area removed and rebuilt. Symbol of the same wave of urban renewal was the new '''Community Center''' with factories and large communal storage, built by Uniter, and the tallest building in New Turing. Finally, one of Acadia's most controversial buildings; the '''Vegan Steakhouse''' by Spleef. Due to its lack of aesthetic value and the fact that it was hardly ever stocked, the Acadian government wished to derelict this building. However, given Acadia's strong property rights, which did not allow for confiscation as long as the owner objected on Discord, and popular disapproval of what many saw as 'government overreach', the building led to one of Acadia's biggest storms of e-lawyerism.<ref>Debate on the Vegan Steakhouse and derelictions: [https://imgur.com/a/tNiiwBz link] (imgur of discord messages)</ref>

== Foreign Relations ==