Grundeswald-New Danzilona relations

A map of the Civcraft 2.0 +,+ with the final land claims of New Danzilona (orange) and Grundeswald (administered land in green, claimed but not administered in lighter green) highlighted.

Grundeswald–New Danzilona relations refers to the foreign relations between the Kingdom of Grundeswald (and to a lesser extent, the entire Holy Krautchan Empire) and New Danzilona (including the entire Danzilonan Federation), which includes the diplomatic, cultural, and economic ties and tensions between the two nations on Civcraft 2.0. They were close geographically and shared a border with each other's allies, but the two countries were not apart of any mutual organisations and were largely hostile to each other mostly on ideological grounds. The Grundeswegians formed a pseudo-satirical far-right, jingoistic, and chauvinistic government and society, whereas New Danzilona was a socially progressive liberal democracy for most of its existence. Although relations were initially neutral and sometimes even friendly, New Danzilona was in fact Grundeswald's closest neighbour who didn't sympathise with their ideology and vice versa, and so NDZ became Grundeswald's natural target for griefing, raiding, and trolling as NDZ attempted to keep their distance. Grundeswald also opposed NDZ through their anti-World Police sentiment, as NDZ largely favoured the WP and was home to some of its fighters, like TheTrackball and JPEGz.

Although the state of their relations could mostly be best described as a cold war, it notably spilled over into a hot one in the Riverford War in late 2014. The two nations also pearled a number of each other's citizens in some isolated incidents, including most notably the "Grundespology."Nevertheless, there were also some periods of peace, especially during the summer of 2014 when Grundeswald citizen Amunak became the first and only NDZ-Grundeswald dual citizen and attempted reconciliation between the two. Grundeswegian mazznoff also continuously operated an armour shop in NDZ's market district.

History

Early 2.0 Unofficial Relations

Although both the Danzilonans and the Grundeswegians joined Civcraft at the very start of the server, official relations weren't established until almost a year later in early 2014. However, a number of indirect interactions occurred throughout 2013 that set the stage for future relations. The first of these interactions was when a newfriend raider group roleplaying variously as Islamist terrorists and Cthulhu cultists, lavagriefed and raided homes in NDZ in early August 2013. The criminals were bountied and a holy war was declared against them by the Church of Ranubis but to no avail. The group made a video taunting the Danzilonans over not being caught shortly before going inactive over the following weeks. NDZ was able to entirely clean up, and the incident flew under the radar of most of the Danzilonans for the rest of their history. A year later, however, it was indirectly revealed by Grundeswald that the Cult had been given supplies and targets by the Grundeswegians who shared bits of their ideology.

The second of these encounters occurred in the form of a Reddit post made by the Grundeswegians in support of the Irish Republican Army in which the poster semi-facetiously mocked British people, calling them "cockroaches." Grundeswegian culture was also partly based on Irish culture, such as the mascot seen in the sidebar of their subreddit and in the Grundeswegian song "Go On Home Brynian Soldiers" (a parody of the song "Go on home, British soldiers"). As NDZ at the time had a relatively large population of British citizens, some Danzilonans were offended and got into subreddit spats with the Grundeswegians over their country of origin in one thread in October 2013.

Though these interactions were unofficial and/or indirect, it planted the seed of bitter reception and cold feelings between the sides, with each of them now aware of each other as ideological rivals.

Initial Contact and Interest in Friendship

Flag of the UIA

The first official contact made between Grundeswald and NDZ came on March 8, 2014. After forming a defensive pact with New Leningrad, Grundeswegian leader Killer_Chris approached NDZ with a proposal for a similar offer, with the logic that smaller and less resource-rich states should stick together.The two parties initially expressed mutual interest based on material needs, but talks stalled when an NDZ representative pointed out that Grundeswald would have to make a defensive pact and negotiate with the U3P as a whole, as it was the Secretary of Defence of that organisation who was in charge of such matters for its member states. Grundeswald neglected to do so, and so relations fell back to a cold but neutral state. Grundeswald turned elsewhere in the region and negotiated an alliance with Titan, completing them on April 1st and announcing the formation of the United Imperial Assembly, or UIA. NDZ had at that point fairly good relations with Titan, and a foreign representative officially congradulated the merger. Although no official talks re-initiated, hope was renewed for friendly relations with Grundeswald.

Downward Spiral into Hostility

CivCraft Metro Map, April update

As part an ongoing series of posts that he'd been making since at least January, Grundeswegian mazznoff publicly released a map of all of Civcraft's rail lines and their destinations on April 27, 2014.Naturally expanding over time as more cities became connected, this update included many destinations which were private cities not previously announced to the public. This caused a great deal of controversy as mazznoff had not respected their decision to be private nor asked for permission to include them on the metro map. At least two of those private cities which were revealed, Churchill and Pella, were members of the U3P and allies of New Danzilona. Even when mazznoff was directly requested to remove them from the map, he simply ignored them, souring relations with the U3P and, indirectly, NDZ. A defensive alliance with the UIA was officially off the table indefinitely.

The Trial of Lowtuff v. Grundeswald

On June 10th, while out exploring, Danzilona citizen Lowtuff entered the Grundeswegian capital of New Salisbury. Lowtuff was curious about the bits of the city the Grundeswegians had built into a mountain, and when they were unable to enter, Lowtuff broke 6 unreinforced stone blocks to gain access to the area. Although Lowtuff replaced the blocks to cover their tracks, snitch logs had caught them red handed. The Grundeswegians demanded that Lowtuff make a public post apologising for breaking and entering their restricted area to which Lowtuff refused and instead made a post expressing no regret. In reponse, a bounty was spurred by the Grundeswegians for Lowtuff's capture, and Lowtuff handed themself in later that day. A trial was held in the morning of June 11th, and Lowtuff was sentenced to a day in the end and 5 diamonds in reparations to the Grundeswegians.Although Lowtuff themself and some Danzilonans accepted the sentence and took responsibility, other Danzilonans, like TheTrackball, believed no ground at all should be ceded to their ideological counterparts who had showed them no mercy in the April metro map controversy. Nevertheless, Lowtuff was convicted and then shortly afterwards after they had farmed sufficient pearls in the end.

The "Grundespology"

RoarkLeSkif being pearled during the Grundespology, June 20, 2014

After the creation of the New Danzilona Hockey League and the success of its ongoing first season throughout May and June 2014, Grundeswald wanted to get in on the action and submitted an application for their own team to join the league in mid-June. However, due to the previous hostility between Grundeswald and NDZ and the name of the team they applied with (the "Grundeswald Neo-Nancies), Danzilonan citizen and NDZHL commissioner RoarkLeSkif believed the Grundeswegians would not take the game serious and was worried they would sully the reputation of the league. After their application was rejected, Grundeswald began prodding NDZ with propaganda, creating the satirical narrative that "ice cartels" were running the city and repeatedly called Danzilonans "cockroaches". In response, Roark made a public post transparently outlining his reasons for the rejection.

Admittedly wanting to use the situation to "stir shit," the Grundeswegians headed to NDZ on June 20th. Their arrival in the wake of Roark's post made some Danzilonans wary, and so the Grundeswegians invited them to NDZ's fountain area to apologise for such feelings, an event they'd dubbed the Grundespology. When the Grundeswegians who were wearing prot were asked to remove it, they ignored the demands and began to throw eggs everywhere. The Danzilonans fired snowballs back at the Grundeswegians, for which the Grundeswegians pearled three of the Danzilonans, including Roark himself. In reponse to the killings, the Danzilonan Security Force pearled all of the Grundeswegians present and freed the imprisoned Danzilonans, bringing the Grundespology to an end. With about half of all Grundeswegians now pearled, the Danzilonans set up an inpromptu court of justice to clarify the situation, get input from both sides, and dole out sentences. On June 24, a verdict was released, giving the Grundeswegians various sentences of days in the end, compensation, and indefinite bans from entering New Danzilona.While in the end, the Grundeswegians protested for their release, but their sentences were ultimately stuck to. On June 26th, the last of the pearled Grundeswegians were freed and banished from NDZ, and the attentions of both nations turned elsewhere for the time being.

Attempts at Reconciliation

Immediately following the Grundespology, mazznoff was permitted to open his armour shop within NDZ's market district by the market manager, Weishaar, who also wished to a swift recovery to NDZ-Grundeswald relations.

On July 9, 2014, newfriend Aeginan and newly-elected DZF foreign representative NerdChops pitched the idea of building a Danzilonan embassy in Grundeswald to the general public as the first step to rebuilding relations.Although reception to the idea was sparse and largely neutral, it was within NerdChops's right as a foreign rep to build the embassy and at least establish diplomatic relations, so plans proceeded and a design was made.However, for reasons unknown (possibly incompatibility with Grundeswegian building codes), the embassy was never built, and relations remained stagnant.

On July 26, 2014, the UIA was dissolved.Grundeswald had seceded around two months prior, citing Titan's failure to support them militarily in the Laozi controversy and the admittance of another nation into the UIA without Grundeswald's consultation. Titan accused Grundweswald of being overly jingoistic, leading Danzilonans to privately speculate that Grundeswald wanted to get more aggressive with NDZ.Leaving the U3P as the only major regional alliance left after the UIA's dissolution, Killer_Chris approached the organisation, asking for a roadmap to rapprochement if not outright Grundeswegian admittance to the U3P.The Grundeswegians were told that while admittance was unlikely, friendly relations could still be established if the Grundeswegians visited the U3P's member nations and made genuine relationships with its residents. The Grundeswegians failed to do so and instead looked to expand their own political empire, annexing the city of New Detroit (which bordered Mt. Augusta to the east) on August 5, 2014. Just a couple weeks prior to the annexation, the town of Riverford was admitted into the Danzilonan Federation.Coincidentally, Riverford and Gensokyo bordered each other, creating a new area of tension between Grundeswald and New Danzilona.

The Riverford War

Main Article: Riverford War

Leadup and Causes

Gensokyo-Riverford Border Disagreement

Gensokyo and Riverford were both founded as independent newfriend nations in the summer of 2014, and their capitals were established on the opposite sides of a landmass east of Mt. Augusta. Over the course of June and July, Gensokyo quickly expanded in population and began to push its border eastward toward Riverford, and Riverford, while struggling to maintain a population of more than 5 residents, expanded westward toward Gensokyo through the conquest of other newfriend nations, like Syngrad and Vend.The two borders eventually met by late July, with Riverford claiming most of the landmass between them, much to the dismay of Gensokyo.Negotiations began between the leaders of the two towns over their border, and a draft concept for a new border was drawn up by an Augustan citizen.However, talks stalled when neither party was willing to budge, with each insisting that they were owed more land than they had given each other in their negotiations.It was eventually reluctantly agreed that the draft concept border would be adhered to until January 1, 2015. The can was simply kicked down the curb, and Gensokyo remained unhappy. Gensokyo and Riverford then joined Grundeswald and the Danzilonan Federation, respectively, making the border a greater issue in wider Grundeswald-NDZ relations.

Istanbulite Independence from Grundeswald

Danzilonans with Istanbulite leader GTAIVIsBest as they lay the groundwork for their embassy, August 17, 2014

Dating back to the first day of 2.0, the city of Istanbul had previously been the centre of pre-Grundeswegian culture, largely involving the same people as Grundeswald before twice moving and ending up in their final location in what they dubbed "voortreks." Since the first voortrek at the end of summer 2013, Istanbul (located on Mt. Augusta's northern border) laid dormant, occupied only by temporary newfriend residents or Augustan citizens who deemed the land theirs but still remained legally claimed by Grundeswald. On August 17, 2014, a former non-Grundeswegian citizen of Istanbul, GTAIVIsBest, announced his intentions to reclaim and revive Istanbul as an independent political entity once again.GTA cited the fact that most of his signs and infrastructure he built while a citizen and minister of the former Istanbulite government were still there, whereas actual Grundeswegian presence in the area was minimal. GTA garnered the support of most of the server's nations, including New Danzilona who saw their independence as an opportunity to undermine Grundeswegian authority in general. NDZ foreign reps built an embassy in Istanbul just a few hours after their declaration of independence, becoming the first nation to officially establish diplomatic ties with them.Over the following 24 hours, Grundeswegian leadership largely collapsed as an official consensus on their response to Istanbul's independence could not be formed.Some Grundeswegian and Prussian players reportedly placed pro-Grundeswald signs on the outskirts of Istanbul, but were prevented from entering the city. by the presence of foreign delegates. Istanbul had secured its independence as a Danzilonan ally in an area where border tensions remained high.