The Commonwealth

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The Commonwealth
The Commonwealth
Flag of the Commonwealth
Flag of the Commonwealth
General
Location-4000, 0
DemonymCWer
Capital cityMount Olympus
SettlementsThe Mill, New Isenburg, Lilyhaven, Eon, Petergrad, Hell
TerritoriesVerdant Valley, Mount Olympus, Argalasti, Pirate Island, Yuma-Yuma, King's Cross, Lowlands, Coconut, Eon, Dirt Islands, North Africa, Fallas Ridge, Vyta, Hell
CurrencyDIE (Diamonds, Iron, Emeralds)
Government
GovernmentMonarchy
Governing documentN/A
• King
Peter5930
• Prime Minister
FE_Flags
• Architect
reffelruz
Formation
Foundation dateJune 6th, 2022
Foundation documentThe DOTEK
Preceded byThe Commonwealth (CC), Commonwealth (2.0), Lio, Neverwhere, Thule, Concordia (3.0)
Culture
LanguageEnglish, French
ReligionMedicism, Cult of Peter, Church of Road Sheep, GOATism, Hands of the Earth, Christianity, Buddhism
MottoTo Live Without Fear - Vivre Sans Peur
Links
Subreddit/r/CivCommonwealth
DiscordDiscord

The Commonwealth's iteration on CivMC is the continuation of the monarchy which was first founded in Civcraft 2.0 by Sashimii, and later on Civclassic by Cowguypig. The third iteration was founded on CivMC by Reffelruz, who joined the nation and the game in the early days of the Classic Era. Peter5930 remains king, and all ranks and procedures have been carried over to the new map, but recontextualized in a new way.

The Commonwealth focuses on attracting citizens and tourism through cultural work, social events, as well as accommodation of interstate travel and trade via Shopside, as is a tradition for the nation going back to 2.0. The city resides in the jungle valleys surrounding Mount Olympus, on the equator west of the world-centre; the 2.0 formula of boroughs being right next to each other has been reenacted.

Government

Historically, the crown has been passed directly from monarch to monarch, with each subsequent parliament overseen in its establishment by the monarch of the day; the regular system of selective succession ended with Peter5930, who did not name an heir, but an Architect, who was left to grapple with this puzzle.

House of Elders

Continuity with previous Commonwealth governments has been achieved through a system of houses that recontextualizes legacy roles as a form of ancestor worship, with King Peter as the most absent as well as highest venerated ancestor; the House of Elders consists of the old council of Westminster - veterans of the Somber War - some of whom have become a diaspora of Commonwealth oldfriends dispersed throughout the Civ world; these remain influential voices in the Commonwealth community, maintaining the discord and wiki, and giving sage advice to their descendants from time to time.

House of Lords

The House of Lords is made up of land barons to own and operate the boroughs; they are responsible for overseeing developement, choosing and establishing build codes, and deciding on a form of local government for their borough.

The Prime Minister is voted in from among the council, or otherwise by the populous; they assemble their government as they like; they coordinate with the king and council on international affairs and keep them updated on political occurrences. The Prime Minister acts as speaker in the House of Commons and Politics channel in the CW Discord, and coordinates votes.

Several attempts have been made at drafting a constitution to bind the nation into practices, but the notion of bindings such as these has so far fallen out of fashion in CW culture in favour of unspoken law and tradition.

A concept sketch of the CW Coat of Arms, currently being refined by FranCreeps
A concept sketch of the CW Coat of Arms, currently being refined by FranCreeps

House of Commons

Brought officially into being by reffelruz on March 30th, 2024, the House of Commons are the priest class responsible for maintaining the temple fire. The irony of this is intentional; the monarchy which has become the subject of religion is reflected in the religious subversion of the parliament beneath it. The house fulfills a role comparable to the Temple of Vesta in Rome; members of the house are to have no citizenships outside the Commonwealth, their free travel is severely limited and they are responsible for growing and maintaining the temple - its murals, its decorations, its services, its rituals, and its texts; this is a democratization of the role of Architect. Members serve a minimum of two terms, or six months, retiring in luxury to be served like the King Himself.

The Architect

The Architect is a mediator role that shares characteristics with shamans and religious leaders; they lead from description, placing contemporary history within the context of an ongoing mystery that began with Peter5930 and continues to unfold today. The Architect moves between 'heaven' and 'earth', weaving history into myth, and myth into history, holding the worlds together: he takes a backseat leadership role, and invokes the powers in heaven.

The name 'Architect' comes from the role given directly to reffelruz from King Peter, who tasked him with the construction of a new city called Victoria on the square patch of land that used to be his farm before the Somber War; Peter destroyed much of the city upon returning when the war was over, and much of what was left was built by reffelruz; likewise, the strongest CWers remained standing after the war, and the rebuilding was slow, but superior to what was destroyed. This whole story is recontextualized in the world of CivMC: the world was destroyed, and the Architect was left to rebuild the King's city.

History (CMC)

The DOTEK (Classic Age)

Councilor reffelruz nailing the first copy of the DOTEK to the door of Westminster Parliament - Monday, August 9, 2021

On the 9th of August, 2021, reffelruz, council representative of Fort Victoria in the The Classic-era Commonwealth, nailed a book titled "the Doctrine of the Eternal King" or "DOTEK" to the door of Westminster Parliament. The document was a political diagnosis of Peter's kingship; that it had been acknowledged - by the people's continued acknowledgement in his absence - that Peter was more than an earthly ruler. Since the original founding in 2.0, the Commonwealth has been a selective monarchy, meaning the host of the crown chooses their own successor; Peter's continued role at the top of the Commonwealth hierarchy following his death, according to reffelruz, is akin to godhood, which would be reinforced by the rules of succession and the extraordinary nature of his story, which strongly correlates with those of gods and mythic heroes across countless cultures in the real world. The DOTEK argues that such continued deference would not be afforded to a lesser king, and so, going forward, the kingship of Peter ought to be depicted in the fashion of the cosmic and invoked as the sacred cultural cornerstone of the nation and spiritual ruler for all time, seceding the title of King to the world of permanent cultural myth, which rests above the world of parlimentary affairs, and as such ought to dictate its nature.

The Council never responded to reffelruz's letter.

The New Founding

Following the end of the Classic era, the Commonwealth did not pursue territory on any of the Civ servers which led up to CivMC. Discussions occurred on the topic of a revival on CivMC weeks before launch on May 26th 2022, but nothing definitive was planned. Less than a week before launch, reffelruz made an announcement and attempted to rally CWers for the revival. The response was mostly surprise, and most of the active players from the Classic era were already dedicated to new groups. reffelruz deleted the post, discouraged by the mostly negative response. Then the server was delayed, and he made a second announcement, having been encouraged to take advantage of the delay by former-CWer specificlanguage. The CWers that remained active but did not join other groups signed up for the revival.

On June 2nd, reffelruz set out into the newly launched map to search for a location to claim in the name of the King. Having no contact with anyone out in the wilderness for days, reffelruz became weary from his travels, lonesome and a bit discouraged. Eventually though, he came across a large rock at the head of two rivers, forming a perfect cross at the base of the rock. reffelruz saw the landmark as having great symbolic significance, as the name Peter means "rock", and the story of the King contains - as reffelruz interprets in the DOTEK - numerous connections and parallels to Jesus Christ, who was killed on a cross, as well as Prometheus, who was tethered to a rock. reffelruz saw this landmark as a sign from the king bidding him to endure as He did, and this renewed reffelruz's hope for the future of the nation, and his resolve to carry on was restored. He declared the location to be a holy site of the King, and dubbed the landmark "King's Cross".

King's Cross, where reffelruz met bg by the two rivers, and they agreed on the sacred nature of the place - they did not yet know
King's Cross, where reffelruz met bgbba by the two rivers, and they agreed on the sacred nature of the place - they did not yet know

There he met Bgbba, then chieftain of Yoahtl, who informed reffelruz that the nation planned to settle in the area; saddened at the loss of the location, but ultimately glad that King's Cross would fall into the hands of a former ally, reffelruz would continue on his search after urging the chieftain to take good care of the spot, as it was sacred. Bgbba agreed that the spot was sacred, though neither of them yet knew why.

reffelruz journeyed south, coming across Mount Olympus, a snow-peaked mountain at the centre of a circular jungle mountain range. The spot had massive potential, and reffelruz marked it as a possible claim. However, having still little interaction with those who signed on to join him, he became once again discouraged at the prospect of a nation. He then returned to King's Cross, compelled somehow to see it again.

When he arrived, there was no sign of a settlement in the area, except for a tiny wheat farm in the field. He messaged Bg, prepared to give up the nation in favour of a religion based out of Yoahtl. Bg informed him that Yoahtl had left the area to avoid certain "goons". Undeterred by this bit of information, and encouraged by Bg to go for it, reffelruz jumped to claim the area surrounding King's Cross. He climbed to the top of the rock for a good vantage point on the area, and to explore the clifftop. When he reached the top of the rock, he checked his coordinates, and he couldn't believe what he saw.

He, and the rock, were standing precisely over the coordinate -5900 -3000, which is the name of the king (Peter5930). This was a divine experience for reffelruz, who was absolutely ecstatic. He immediately went to Bg to tell him about it, and Bg at first completely misunderstood reffelruz, thinking he was seeking encouragement to found the Commonwealth. When Bg understood, his mind too was blown, and he insisted that reffelruz go forward with the claim, who was very happy to do so, no longer needing encouragement.

Unfortunately, there on top of the rock was Fellowship, who had just moved into the area to build a city based off of Minas Tirith from Lord of the Rings. Despairing that the rock was claimed, reffelruz attempted to contact the leaders of Fellowship to propose a monument on top of the rock. They responded in words but gave no answer. Then, a second time: still no answer. He soon learned that among the leaders of Fellowship was Vah, an infamous member of Lexington, the Classic-era nation which fought a six-month war against the Western Alliance and crucified Peter. reffelruz gave up on the rock, choosing instead to take the reality of the situation into account of the symbolism of the location. He could claim the eastern section of King's Cross, and build a monument at the base of the rock instead, looking upon the symbol of the king, over the river, just out of reach.

He accidentally overclaimed Sovia (CivMC), who contacted him about it. reffelruz immediately removed the claim post and apologized. Sovia was pleased and graciously invited reffelruz to found the Commonwealth to their immediate north, an area which included the eastern section of King's Cross; reffelruz accepted.

All was well for a couple days, but as players were still just arriving at the claim, Fellowship began moving their claim into the CW claim, both by making reddit posts and by building farms in CW claims. reffelruz commented on the post to inform them, but the post was promptly deleted and replaced with a new one, this time eating even further into CW claims, including King's Cross. All attempts to reach out to Fellowship, as before, were met with non-answers and dismissal. Seeing no hope for a peaceful life and enjoyable game experience under these circumstances, reffelruz reached out to CW's other neighbours to get their word on the situation. Local settlements recognized the CW claim but were unable and unwilling to defend it. Discouraged and unsure of what to do, reffelruz received a short message from Bgbba, consisting of only two words: "revive CW".

King's Cross Monument

King's Cross Monument
King's Cross Monument - a model reconstruction of Peter's End Tower, with the eye facing The Rock in Fellowship

reffelruz got in contact with the leaders of Petrichor, who had claimed the southern portion of King's Cross at the time, and would later claim the eastern portion as well. He requested that they receive the western portion from him; though it was now contested by Fellowship, reffelruz proposed to relinquish all current claims in the name of the King in exchange for this one favour. Shadedoom, a minister of Petrichor, agreed to bring this forward to Fellowship, though he did not understand the importance of the landmark at the time. Vah agreed to the terms; the site for the monument was secured, and construction promptly began once reffelruz decided what it would be: a redesign and recreation of the famous End tower which stood at the centre of the King's End Citadel in the Classic era. The tower was completed on June 21st, the summer solstice - yet another remarkable coincidence, as Peter's journey to the End and back corresponds to other solar and seasonal myths, in which the god or goddess is imprisoned in the realm of death for six months of the year, causing the seasons.

With the site established, reffelruz headed southwest back to Mount Olympus, where he soon staked a new claim. This is where the Commonwealth resides today.

Early Settlement - The Mill, Fort Isenburg, King's Cross Farms

The first settlers of the new country alongside reffelruz were Eveelution07, Zyra_Bot, Pergyskeel, PoolPartyColin, and Cowguypig.

The settlers landed on the west coast in a beautiful cove, soon named Sashimii Cove after the founder of the nation. The team began to dig a tunnel connecting the winding valley behind the mountain range to the beach outside. Around the entrance to the valley, buildings began to spring up to house basic necessities.

Cowguypig founded what would later be known as New Isenburg on one of the smaller peaks on the outskirts of Mount Olympus, building many of the first buildings on the new land, including a café and a Police Station. Cowguypig established the pattern for roads in the Commonwealth, which was based on a common road pattern in 2.0 CW. Roads began to spread east, to encircle the mountain, and connect New Isenburg to what would come to be known as the Mill.

Following the historical conventions of the nation, reffelruz intended to create an underground space to house the country's central transit centre, as well as the central marketplace. Plans were drawn up for the Mill, which would take advantage of floating water - an invention of Peter5930 which was also used in the King's Cross Monument - to allow for quick, convenient and fun access to the station via a safe fall into a pit. The Mill would feature a massive tree at its centre, stretching high above the surrounding buildings, hanging over the city streets, with roots in the deepslate below the station.

The Mill Tree in its first days
The Mill Tree in its first days

The station would be developed in the cave surrounding the trunk of the tree, retaining the natural shape and look of the cave, just as Peter5930 did in Classic-Era CW with the Ravine. Much development is left to be done on the central Mill, with various CWers working on different sections on the area.

Colin took the lead on development of the farm complex at King's Cross, becoming Baron of the settlement. With food secured, the people began to show up and settle in. The connection to King's Cross was the first rail line developed in the nation, built by PoolPartyColin. Bread quickly became the local staple.

Construction began at a steady pace, with the first settlers merely subsisting off the surplus product from the farm, building the first few houses and storage facilities - not hyperfocused on grinding the tech tree or amassing wealth, but on developing the area and recruiting wandering travelers. During this time, a large portion of the current population was recruited, including Bowilla, Oakshelf, Byhalia, AdmiralDuc5, Toxicshot07, Ice_Otter, R3Y_J04N, AwesomeDracula, LoliGoesRawrr, Recrimination, Shreda5, and many others. Notably, two other CW old-timers - Godofthevillage and Niko - briefly joined and began respective projects.

In the summer of 2022, Citylion, CEO of TRICON Corporation, held a building competition to decide where the corp's main headquarters would be stationed. reffelruz's design entry for CW won the competition, and Citylion, former-CWer himself, returned to CW and awaited the HQ's construction. The grand opening happened on June 17 2023 - the process was delayed significantly due to disagreement over how to design the bathrooms: some wanted two gendered bathrooms, others wanted one universal bathroom. The solution: two entrances to one bathroom, with gendered signs for each entrance.

The Ice Road

Ice otter was an early settler of the Commonwealth; his large house became an early landmark of the town, and he gathered the quartz for the TRICON facility. He was friends with Vah and Ez2Clutch, notorious raiders, and gave them perms to an ice road he built between his mansions in CW and Icenia, which they used to raid Butternut. Otter gave perms for the road to Jarl_Heisenberg, and ran off with his friends to raid until they got banned. He expressed gratitude to CW for having him, and CW continued to hold him in high esteem. The ice road was redirected to the Mill until Icenia closed it on their end.

The First Election

The Wandering of Dan the Horse and the Founding of the Danforth on the Western slope of Mount Olympus
The Wandering of Dan the Horse and the Founding of the Danforth on the Western slope of Mount Olympus

The first election was opened with the ritual sacrifice of Dan the horse, who was in fact not harmed at all during the ritual, reflecting the protective power of Peter's sacrifice. This event marked the location of the Temple of Dan.

During this time, a number of mysterious texts appeared throughout the land, later revealed to have been written by a rather inebriated PergySkeel, lord, councilor and last Prime Minister of the Classic Era. The notes claimed he was "of noble blood", implying rightful heirship to the throne. Some believers in Peter responded with anger, declaring the texts to be heretical; others declared that they would gladly serve Pergy as king; in response, reffelruz penned the poem The Spirit of the King, which now rests on a lectern on top of the Mill Tree; this poem lays out the character and criteria of a king, and what would be required of such an individual should they arise; this set the stage for the election, to which Pergy ceded his old role, allowing for two new candidates to rise to the occasion.

The candidates were total opposites: Mokuno was an oldfriend, councilor, and active player with lots of experience and strong plans; he. AwesomeDracula was a new player who did not necessarily have the experience to back up his plans, but was a strong speaker - he and his campaign manager Oakshelf started the Common Front Party, consisting mostly of newfriends from North Africa. Finally, AwesomeDracula believed in the king, and Mokuno did not, declaring himself the true heir at the midnight hour of the election. The candidates were at a tie, and reffelruz gave the final tie-breaking vote to Dracula, out of his desire to guard the sacral kingship, even though on all else, he wished to vote for Mokuno. Dracula was the first newfriend leader the CW had ever had, and signaled a movement of the nation into the hands of a new generation of players. Mokuno was not seen again.

Dracula began to assemble a cabinet of new players from his party, giving them realistic-sounding ministerial positions, such as Interior and Immigration. These were sadly not lived up to by his constituents - who instead plotted a coup against the crown - though Dracula himself continued to make contact with neighbouring states and conduct diplomacy on behalf of the Commonwealth, he remained ignorant of this plot until its conclusion.

The Sheep and the Goat

Burning cross in the city, built by North African Peter Worshippers
Burning cross in the city, built by North African Peter Worshippers
Sheep Effigy to protest the Road Sheep Church and their denunciation of the King
Sheep Effigy to protest the Road Sheep Church and their denunciation of the King
Live burning of AdmiralDuc5 by Bishop ToxicShot79 in front of the Petergrad Temple
Live burning of AdmiralDuc5 by Bishop ToxicShot79 in front of the Petergrad Temple

Each day, reffelruz preached his DOTEK to the locals and put cosmic ideas in their minds; a group of citizens came across a sheep on the side of the road, and began to worship it, fencing it into a one-block pen; reffelruz was not concerned about this initially, as he was just happy to see people having fun. Later, however, the sheep worshippers began to identify the sheep as the King, and demanded its coronation. Signs popped up all over the town denouncing the current kingship for its invisibility, implying that the sheep's physical presence qualified it more for the position than Peter. Devout Peter followers from North Africa formed an angry mob opposing the Sheeple, and there was a brief brawl in the streets, leaving burning crosses and effigies around the area. One Road Sheep follower was converted to Peter worship via a live burning conducted outside the temple in Petergrad - a practice which was never stipulated or condoned by the Architect or the Prime Minister, and was simply made up on the spot by the zealous protestors in order to conduct a conversion ceremony; the ritual did not reflect well on the monarchy, and the Architect was forced to go to Petergrad to denounce the actions taken by the local bishop and to attempt to dissuade the North Africans from splitting off and forming their own form of Peter worship separate from the religion which formed the basis for the monarchic state; he also attempted to clean up some of their more colourful rhetoric and slogans, like "ALL HAIL", shortening it to simply "HAIL".

reffelruz's attempts failed however, and the religious fervor continued to boil over in Petergrad in secret; TheFinalGoat, who had placed the signs around Mount Olympus earlier, denouncing the King, had come to believe that he was the physical reincarnation of Peter himself; it is not known whether this was his own idea, or if it was fed to him by Oakshelf, who began to write his own reinterpretation of the DOTEK around this new incarnation, along with extensive plans for a new form of government, complete with tree-themed names and its own version of the creation myth, slightly changed from previous versions. Goat was prophesied in this document - titled Peter's DOTEK - to be the rightful heir to the crown of the Commonwealth, and the Peter Cult in North Africa promptly converted to worship of Goat; Oakshelf began secretly petitioning locals to sign on to Goat's coronation; he collected the signatures of several newfriends in town, and even one or two members of parliament, including AwesomeDracula, who would later claim not to have known was Oak was truly up to when he signed the document, but like Reffel with the Road Sheep, was happy to see players having fun, and signed his petition in support of this fun, not suspecting that he planned to take over the government in this way.

Eventually, Shreda, Pergy and Bowilla would each be asked for their signature, and reported this to the Architect reffelruz, who promptly confronted Oakshelf directly about all of it; Oakshelf did not deny it, claiming not to have done any of it maliciously, but as a surprise for reffel; Oakshelf handed over the original copy of his rewrite of the DOTEK; confused, but sensing sincerity in Oakshelf, reffel tried to come up with a plan to wrap up all these storylines: the government, the king, the sheep, the goat, the cults; when he realized what had to happen, he told Oakshelf to begin making preparations for the coronation.

The Coronation

A poster for the Coronation made by Oakshelf at the request of reffelruz

In the days leading up to the Coronation of the new King, reffelruz mourned Peter; he mourned the kingship which was meant to be eternal, that he was now forced by his people to give up; he vented his anger toward the populous by writing 'The Two Goats', which can be found on a lectern in the Church of the Road Sheep.

Oakshelf had built a throne and an altar near the Mill Tree - at the time, he had no idea how appropriate the altar would be, and simply thought it would be nice; when reffelruz told Oakshelf to proceed with preparations for the coronation, this included posting an advertisement to the subreddit inviting anyone in the world to attend the event: the coronation of a new king of the Commonwealth; however, reffelruz told Oakshelf not to include the name of the new king in the advertisement, thus keeping it a secret until his big reveal. Oakshelf heartily agreed, thinking the idea would add to the thrill of the event; how right he was.

On the day of the coronation, the crowd gathered in pews in front of the new throne: among them followers of Sheep, Goat, King and country; reffelruz ascended the quartz steps to give a speech; he acknowledged their unanimous clamor for a king on earth, and told them the day had come for their wish to be granted- that one had arisen who was worthy to bear the crown in Peter's name. Then, he called TheFinalGoat up to the throne.

Goat accepted into his being the identity of the Road Sheep, uniting in himself the two cults of Sheep and Goat, both identified by their followers with Peter; Goat was then crowned with the Wreath of the Road Goat, and instructed to parade around the Mill Tree seven times, with the crowd following him in procession/precession(ie. funeral procession + the precession of a gyroscope, or the earth's axis).

Following the pr(o/e)cession, Goat was called by reffelruz to return to the throne; reffel held a golden crown in one hand, and a golden dubbing sword in the other; Goat approached the altar before the throne; he was anointed with special oils prepared by Oakshelf, and bowed his head to be crowned; reffelruz then said the following words: I now pronounce you...fit...for...sacrifice!" and brought the sword down on Goat's neck(at least, that's what he meant to do, but he had the sword in the wrong hand, so he actually just bonked Goat on the head with the crown). Goat immediately fled from the scene, along with his conspirators in the crowd, Oakshelf, AdmiralDuc5 and Toxicshot79. Goat was caught on the road by PergySkeel and promptly killed; the rest of the conspirators escaped back to North Africa, but in fact were never in any danger, for the ritual was complete; the Goat was killed, along with the gods that were placed on his head, cleansing the land of all cults which threatened the monarchy; following these events, reffelruz gave another speech, explaining why Goat needed to be sacrificed, and then gathered the people on top of the Mill Tree for the true coronation of the King.

The choice went to Bowilla, who most embodied the spirit of the king as layed out by reffelruz in the DOTEK and other writings, and as demonstrated by Peter in the Classic Era. Bowilla gave a speech of his own, and then sang a song which he had written for a coronation in a previous life.

AwesomeDracula, seeing that his cabinet had attempted to sieze the crown, stepped down as Prime Minister, preferring to simply be a diplomat and a lawyer; in his place, Oakshelf was promoted to Prime Minister with the consent of the houses, and began to assemble plans for the new parliament.

The Tragic Fall of Oakshelf

Oakshelf meets with reffelruz in Petergrad to sign North African territories back into the Commonwealth, and himself back into the House of Lords (on probation)
Oakshelf meets with reffelruz in Petergrad to sign North African territories back into the Commonwealth, and himself back into the House of Lords (on probation) - shreda5 appears on radar and is about to ambush oak, chasing him out to sea

Oakshelf came out with big plans for the new government: he wanted to make the Commonwealth a communist state; this did not appeal to the house of elders, nor to the lords, and the idea was voted down mercilessly. Oakshelf lost confidence from this vote, and stepped down as Prime Minister. Commonwealth flags with red X's painted over them began popping up around Petergrad, North Africa, and talk of secession began to circulate; when these rumors were confirmed, and it was revealed that Oakshelf planned to secede with his posse, all of North Africa and several islands to become a state of the IF. An arrest team was sent to the Petergrad temple to bring Oakshelf in on charges of treason; he was found holed up in a bunker at the back of the temple; after some time spent negotiating, Oakshelf and AdmiralDuc5 emerged from the bunker, and Oakshelf's trial was conducted right there in the temple, with King Bowilla acting as judge, reffelruz as prosecutor, and AwesomeDracula as defense; AwesomeDracula won the case handily, and Oakshelf was cleared of all charges; of course, the whole trial was just for fun, and really it was conducted for Oakshelf more than anyone - to give him a grand send-off.

Eventually the IF would completely collapse, and Oakshelf would return North Africa to the Commonwealth; he met with reffelruz to sign a contract welcoming him and his land back into the family officially; just as the signed document was about to be handed to reffelruz, Shreda5 jumped out and attacked Oakshelf, who promptly escaped out to sea; a chase ensued and eventually Oakshelf was able to defeat his assailant; the two met up again and the contract was delivered.

Soon after, his Minecraft account disappeared, along with his discord account, and he was never heard from again, until late January of 2024, when signs started popping up around the city, signed by the ghost of Oakshelf - some say he's out there still.

Yoahtlan Vacation

Commonwealth beach spot outside Altepetl City
Commonwealth beach spot outside Altepetl City

In late February 2023, reffelruz arrived home from a vacation and immediately got CWers to pack their bags and take a vacation themselves - this time in Yoahtl, on the east side of the map. Yoahtl is a historical ally of the Commonwealth, having fought in the Western Alliance against Lexington in the Somber War; the reason for this vacation was to stop Yoahtl from leaving the server; reffelruz had been in contact with Quauhtlinmia, a Yoahtlan elder and former chieftain, who he had commissioned to do artwork for him; qua's report was that they had begun to lose hope for a stable existence on CivMC due to continual skirmishes with Gang Shi fighters on their borders, and constant military construction and maintenance - morale was low, and reffelruz wanted to raise it; he gathered a small group from the city and they travelled straight east to Yoahtl.

They stayed for about a week in the city, chatting in VC, building and spending money in the shops while hanging around in the city. The mission was a success; the Yoahtlan people loved having guests in their city, and the knowledge that they had friends in the world raised their morale considerably, and login numbers in Altepetl increased over the week. Yoahtl scrapped plans to leave the server. reffelruz would maintain a close connection with Quauhtli, leading to his meeting with fastestgrass and later involvement in the Grasslands Gambit. He also conducted interviews for a large art project which has yet to be announced.

References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hklLDsNvjY&t=265s&ab_channel=CivMC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc5nU_3dlBs&t=1316s&ab_channel=CivMC