Prussia

Kingdom of Prussia
Flag of Prussia
Banner of Prussia
Motto	Ordnung Muss Sein!
Capital City	Sigmaringen
Government	Constitutional Monarchy
God-King	tbd
Founded (in CivClassics)	Early March 2019
Laws	The Code of Prussia
Religion	Church of t
Demonym	Prussian
Location	+,- Quad
Internal Communication	Slack, irl shitposting over beer
Holidays	16 July (Founding Day), 14 September (Victory and National Parks Day)

Prussia, officially The Kingdom of Prussia, informally Little Prussia, is a Kingdom in the +,- quadrant. The nation has a long, outstanding history within the Civcraft series of servers and joined CivClassics in early March 2019. "Little Prussia" was chosen as the colloquial name of the nation in this iteration as Prussians seek to be more relaxed than on former servers by remaining focused on its own matters, building smaller towns, and not taking itself too seriously while remaining a trusted and dependable nation on the world stage when the need arises.

History

Formation and Pre-CivClassic History

Civcraft 1.0

Prussia is the direct continuation of the Fourth Reich faction that came to Civcraft on 11 July 2012. Their founding members met and organized on the /int/ server and founded Berlin as their first settlement. However, this was on Stevo1066's land, which resulted in friction. Containing a lot of overeager, aggressive members clad in iron, the Fourth Reich annexed Stevo's land. The world police stepped in, and the group was pearled. Most were released on the 13th, but the Fourth Reich lost a lot of members. They decided to interact more peacefully with the server, and founded a second settlement, called Germania. This lived peacefully until 15 July, when the Jacks faction, wary of the Reich's numbers, attacked unprovoked. They levelled the town and pearled its citizens indefinitely. With no hope of getting out, the remaining peaceful members of the Fourth Reich decided a change of name was in order, so on the 16 July 2012, Prussia was founded. Operating in the End, they constructed Marienburg, a grand castle containing a number of facilities.

The city of Danzig in 1.0 watergriefed - a common occurence in the early Civcraft.

Kinetic_Waffle finally released the Prussians on 8 August. Waffle, dissatisfied with the Jacks' blind pearlings, released the Prussians in protest, and gave them a starting capital from the Jacks' vault. The Jacks dissolved, and the Prussians founded Danzig in the +,+ quadrant on the same day. Fearing there were still hostile feelings among other factions of the server, the location of Danzig was a well-guarded secret for a month. For extra security, Prussia became one of the founding members of the SEA (Southeastern Alliance) on 22 August. The SEA is an organization for keeping peace within the +,+ quadrant. On 8 September, Danzig went public. Visitors were amazed by the town built by a group originally founded with the goal of raiding. Unfortunately, disaster struck on 13 September, when fighting between Havana and Communa spilled over to Danzig because of Prussia's SEA ties. The city was lavagriefed badly, and it took some weeks to return the city to its previous state. Some Prussians, furious over this attack, renounced their citizenship, and attacked Havana on 14 September. They left no building standing, and planted trees to form Havana National Park. The day has been celebrated in Prussia as a holiday ever since.

On 11 November, another disaster occured. The murderer Jacfriedchicken committed regicide by killing the beloved King Dolan IX of Prussia. A new King was coronated, King Gustav I. Sadly, Gustav was struck down on the 22 February by divine intervention of the Admin ttk2. Gustav had no heirs, and was succeeded by King Wilhelm I.

On 22 December 2012 Prussia was decorated as "The Coolest Kingdom" at the second Drama Awards held in Mount Augusta.

Amidst longstanding tensions, _dbb_, the defacto "leader" of Prussia and famous diplomat, declared war on Gondolin in a drunken stupor. There were no battles or casualties caused by either side, but both nations remained wary of each other until after 2.0 started.

Civcraft 2.0 and the Holy Krautchan Empire

The Breslau Opera House in 2.0

After it was announced the 1.0 world would be taken down, Prussia decided to remain together for Civcraft 2.0. During the testing period for this new world, Prussia reformed its Constitution slightly by adding several new entries, and used a creative server for its members to test their ideas and building designs for the new world. Since the beginning of the new world, Prussia has estabilished itself through a number of in-game assets, including the city of Breslau. Even before going public on 23 November 2013, a fair amount of trading, tourism, and international interaction had already been taking place in Prussia.

After the untimely death of Friedrich I, the first King in 2.0, Ludwig I was coronated on 12 April 2014 and survived until the end of 2.0.

On 26 August 2014 the foundation of the Holy Krautchan Empire was spearheaded by Prussia along with Grundeswald, New Katten, and Xia in order to stabilize the collapsing Grundeswegian state and prevent their lands from falling into unfriendly hands. Initially, the HKE was organized into five territories known as electorates. The electorates were Prussia, Prussian Fiefdoms, Grundeswald, New Katten, and Xia. The young HKE quickly found itself involved in a territorial war on the 6 and 7 September 2014, known as the Second Battle of Riverford, or, The Yurtstead Conflict. Driven by the colonialist attitudes of two states involved, as well as prevalent jingoistic nationalism on both sides, it is internationally viewed largely as a reminder that territorial disputes between states should be solved in a civil, diplomatic manner. In the end, quick diplomacy and a shared interest in peace helped prevent what could have been a long and pointless war. Real players would be crowned as Emperors/Empresses of the HKE and the first was Gotter I of Prussia on 25 October 2014. The initially small state of Gensokyo, a subject of Grundeswald, grew in population and independence under their rule. Dissent began to ignite in Gensokyo due to feelings of resentment towards the HKE. Gensokyojin citizens believed they were being mistreated by having no official elector or recognition in the HKE. As time passed, the populace of Gensokyo threatened to riot, loot, and revolt. With no other recourse, on 10 November 2014, The Queen, Screenname of Gensokyo, issued an ultimatum to the HKE, demanding elector status and threatening secession if that demand was not met. An agreement was made and the HKE granted Gensokyo elector status, officially having elevated it to the sixth elector of the empire. Gotter I stepped down as Emperor after a five-month reign due to irl obligations. A heated election process took place, with Screenname of Gensokyo I winning by one vote. She was crowned on 21 March 2015. Greenkitten I of Grundeswald would go on to be crowned Emperor on 24 October 2015 and be the last Emperor of the HKE.

All the while, Prussia continued to expand its own network of assets, capital city, and fiefdoms. Its fiefdoms - a portion of Prussian land dedicated to one player with a vision - included Brandenburg (a town in a nether biome), Rønne/Bornholm (a Danish-styled island town), and Wismar/Mecklenburg (a landscape and north German-styled fortress town).

On 17 January 2016, Civcraft creator and senior admin ttk2 held his "End of the World Speech" in the Breslau Opera House, followed by shutting 2.0 down. Prussia as a state in Civcraft was formally dissolved on the same day.

Civcraft 3.0 and the Teutonic Order

Prussia formally declared it would not seek to play in 3.0. However, a handful of Prussians settled in 3.0 under the name of "The Teutonic Order" in order to build a small monastery in the cold mountains of Isolde, but lost interest in the server once its strange approach to the Civcraft goal became apparent.

This group has no connection to any CivClassic groups by the same name or the city of Königsberg.

Interserverum

The Prussian community thinned out and lost members after the end of 2.0, but the core group remained friends via their Slack and other means of communication. A handful of small servers were made, including vanilla survival, creative, and FeedTheBeast (FTB), for nostalgic purposes. Interest in Civcraft-style servers, such as Devoted, was low and only individual members, commonly under alts, joined for short periods of time.

CivClassics

Player Gobblin visits a work-in-progress Sigmaringen. Featured left-center under glass is the "Block of Historic Importance - Do not break" which was unfortunately broken at a later date.

Surges in interest to play on CivClassics came and went from time to time. The first surge resulted in a handful of Prussians starting a small project in Appomattox lands with their blessings. However, that project quickly fizzled out and was soon forgotten.

The second attempt by Prussians to join CivClassics came in Spring 2019 when they came into close contact with their old friends from Gensokyo again. Knowing they wouldn't be a prominent nation on the world stage, the Prussians sought to join as an extention of an established group, and thus joined under friendly terms on Gensokyo lands. The Prussians were granted a small peninsula within Gensokyo's borders.

Settling Sigmaringen

An overview of Sigmaringen from the work-in-progress castle rooftop.

After little discussion and planning, work began on the a town with no name in the southern half of the little peninsula. The name "Sigmaringen", named after the real Prussian city, would be chosen a few days later due to, among other reasons, its ease of pronunciation for non-German speakers. The real city was also a small Prussian exclave for several years, befitting the small CivClassic settlement. The name is commonly abbreviated to "Sig".

Several Prussians logged on and met on their new lands and joined in the gathering of resources. Most of the initial construction work, most notably the storage building and symmetrically-built harbor toward the east shore, were completed by one member, Koentinius ("Koen"). However, these initial structures appeared more grand and fine than some other members, most vocally Gotterdammer ("Gotter"), had wanted Sigmaringen to be: a smaller, quaint town. The quaint "faction" ultimately "prevailed" and Sigmaringen was built in a more loose, semi-rural fashion.The eastern beach was dug up, polders were built atop it, free-standing houses were built, the peninsula was covered in a proper forest, and a natural tub created by some hills was filled with stone upon which a castle is being built. Another point of contention would then arise: the town church. One proposed design featured a more Italian baroque design while the other a more hanseatic brick design. Tensions grew in town until the hanseatic design was ultimately built.

Settling Koenigsburg

An overview of Koenigsburg from the south.

Koentinius would go on to found a second Prussian city after Sigmaringen to build upon his ideas of a grand, orderly town on a small scale. He founded what he originally called Königsberg along the river east of the peninsula, across from Verda. However, it was quickly noted that the name "Königsberg" was already being used by a prominent group, so the name was changed to reflect its founder, Koen. Though some Prussians contributed designs, it was primarily designed and built by him, including the baroque church design that wasn't built in Sigmaringen. It features a train station, the church, a town hall, houses, and a palace.

Expansion and the Mapping Incident

As progress in Sigmaringen and Koenigsburg continued, so did the ambitions of the active Prussians grow. Plans were drawn up to annex large swaths of the then-defunct Verda and, due to a severe miscommunication, to incorporate lands into Prussia that Gensokyo intended to use. A map was drawn of the new claims and posted, which was then seen by the Gensokyo leadership. A discussion between the two groups followed. Both sides realized improper communication had taken place, that no harm was intended, and a compromise was reached as it turned out that Koenigsburg was founded on lands not granted to Prussia, unbeknownst to Gensokyo. The ambitious plan to include parts of the lands to the south and east of Prussia were dropped in the following weeks mainly due to inactivity in Prussia as most of what the players had set out to build had been built, and because the Prussians realized they did not want to dedicate the amount of time to CivClassics as would be needed to use the lands.

Quiet Activity

After the first few months of playing, activity in Prussia dropped. Players would occasionally log on to check snitches, repair buildings and fields from petty damages (as Prussia is located in or near the spawn zone), and explore the world. Work on Sigmaringen continues slowly, or not at all as was the case with the castle for many months between 2019-2020, and Koen continues to work regularly on Koenigsburg and in Pacem. The largest structures built in this period were the Sigmaringen-Taozi overland railway as well as various international subterranian connections via Koenigsburg. As the Prussians never sought to be a power group in CivClassics, the current state of activity fits closely to their original goals.

Gotter began playing again sporadically in late 2019 in order to avoid projects and studying. Sigmaringen received extensive bastion fortifications in this time and many empty lots were filled.

On 13 Jan, 2021, Maximus_Ant logged in near Sigmaringen. Gotter and Ant had a nice conversation and shared a potion of unknown effect; it turned out to give only fire restiance, which was kind of lame. Gotter promised to record this eventful event.

Geography

Biomes and Geographic Features

An overview of the Prussian lands as of June 2020.

Prussia was founded on a small peninsula in the shallow +,- quadrant, which would later be dubbed Sigmaringen Peninsula. The Prussians settled the southern half of the L-shaped land, which was surrounded by a narrow bay to the east, south, and west. To the north, the peninsula connected to the Gensokyo mainland. The entire peninsula is composed of a forest biome, some beaches, and the oceans surrounding it.

The peninsula features several shallow sandy banks along its coasts, making for easy polderbuilding. The eastern sandy bank was turned into a sizable farming and flower polder in the first week in order to gain more land and resources for further construction. The peninsula also featured numerous pointy outcroppings made of dirt and stone, which were termed "Hinkelsteine". The outcroppings were not large enough to build upon but were a slight nuisance during the ongoing construction of Sigmaringen. One solution to the problem was to use the major ring of outcroppings in the center of the peninsula as a "tub", flood the space between them with water, which was in turn turned to stone by dumping lava on it, layer by layer. This turned the tub of outcroppings into a single, monolithic plateau upon which Castle Sigmaringen is being constructed. Several original outcroppings still remain on the peninsula and are under the strict protection of the "Freunde der preußischen Landschaft und vorpreußischen Bauten e.V." (FdpLuvBeV), or, the ''Fellows of the Prussian Landscape and Pre-Prussian Constructs, Registered Organisation''. The organization also protects the last known naturally-generated small pine tree on the peninsula.

Despite being mostly a forest biome, vegetation was sparse upon settlement. An artificial forest was planted, covering most of the unfarmed and unused land along the peninsula. The expansion of the forest to the mainland is being considered.

The Great Beach Theft

The great beach theft.

Some time, during the activity lull of winter 2019-2020, the great beach at the center of the Prussian lands was stolen. While the loss is not incalculable, the responsible Minister simply hasn't done the calculation yet, it does greatly affect the morale of the nation. Nearly all sand was stolen. To hide the frightful sight, the former beach was covered in grass and the surrounding area slightly terraformed to fit the new terrain. No snitches were nearby and no clues were left by the perpetrators.

Neighbors

Formally, Prussia is within the lands of Gensokyo, where the bulk of its territory lies north and northwest of Prussia. Gensokyo's capital city of Taozi is approximately two kilometers northwest of Prussia, most easily accessible by rail. Directly south of Sigmaringen, across the bay, is the country of Verda with its towns of Sovia, Craiggrad, Heinlau, and Crowsroost, all of which are easily accessible by road or boat. Nyasaland lies a ways east of Prussia and the territory of Panem a ways west over the bay.

Public Infrastructure

Prussia currenly only maintains a handful of roads, of which the north-south road, from Verda through Sigmaringen to the northern farms, is the most prominent one. Other roads take scenic routes around Sigmaringen's fields and through the dense forest. Future roads will connect the greater Prussian region.

Sigmaringen and Koenigsburg are both connected to the international rail system via the underground network as well as to Taozi via the Sigmaringen-Taozi overland rail. The overland portions of the railways feature scenic routes, details, and bridges.

Politics and Government

The Monarchy

Formally, the Kingdom of Prussia is an absolute theocratic monarchy. All power resides with the God-King. His rule is all-reaching, none shall question His swift decisiveness, and His words are absolute.

However, the God-King is a chicken and cannot speak, so a clause, the Code of Prussia in CivClassics, was introduced aeons ago to allow for the existence and administration of a constitutional body.

Due to Castle Sigmaringen being incomplete, no God-King has been born yet and the nation is in a state of complete and utter misguidance.

The Constitutional Body

The Consitutitional Body of the Kingdom of Prussia derives its authority over the state from the Code of Prussia. The governing documents of Prussia have gone through many variations, with the Code being newly-written for Civclassics. The Code was ratified by common agreement among the old Prussians and the five most active Prussians on the server on 1 May 2019. These five most active players also form the governing constitutional body of the Kingdom of Prussia.

The goal of the Code was to create a simple framework with as little gibberish as possible through which the consitutional body can govern matters within the Kingdom. Trust among the Prussians is high and their goals are generally the same. It has mostly served as a tie-breaker in stalemates regarding construction and architectural matters.

The main diplomat of Prussia is _dbb_ but any of the other active players can be contacted for any matters: Koentinius, Kaelthas88, and Gotterdammer.

Economy

Prussia, due to its relaxed presence and small scale, requires few resources. Its farms provide plenty of food and some XP materials for trade. It has a number of factories, mostly for building materials, and is mostly self-sufficient in that regard.

Culture

Prussianisms

Prussian culture encompases a vast array of manners, styles, and memes. Prussian culture was far-reaching and recognizable in the old Civcrafts, but its influence remains noticeable in CivClassics.

"t"

The most prominent and noticeable mannerism - if you are in or near Prussia - is "t-ing." Upon logging into the server, a good Prussian will notify their surroundings of their graced presence with a swift t into the chat. All nearby Prussians of proper hearing will swiftly respond with a t into the chat. Everyone is, of course, more than welcome to join and t themselves. The initial t may also be written when a player wishes to find out who is nearby via the t responses.

The Prussian city of Breslau at the end of 2.0

Architecture

For all of Civcraft history, Prussia has been known for its unrivalled architectural style and achievements. In 1.0, the city of Danzig was considered the jewel of the southeast despite having been founded by what was essentially a griefer group. Its most notable constructs included the castle, the university, harbor, and factory, as well as numerous splendid houses, each designed by the Prussian living in it. In 2.0, the Prussians chose to build upon the praise and built the magnificient and giant Breslau. Breslau's most notable constructs included the more organic roads it was built upon, the rathaus (town hall), opera house, cathedral, harbor, numerous ships, university, palace, and palace gardens.

In the present day, Prussian architecture continues to be admired and exported. Members are always glad to help design or contribute to any other group. Koen has contributed a number of designs to the far away city of Pacem.

International Relations

Prussians have always enjoyed an upstanding reputation in the Civcraft series since their reform from being a raider group. Prussians, most notably _dbb_, have served as mediators and negotiators in numerous international incidents. Combined with not interfering in international matters, their attractive cities and welcoming spirit, the good name of Prussia rings far.

Gezo

Gezoerksel, known most commonly as "Gezo," is a true national treasure. He leaves his famous "Gezo was here !!!" signs everywhere he goes. Gezo has been everywhere.

Despite never having spoken publicly, it is believed that Gezo has the smoothest, most velvety voice known to mankind.

In a secret operation in late 2018, Prussians ordered 1000 real Gezo was here !!! stickers without him knowning. They then spent one year placing stickers in public, famous locations. These include most of Germany, mostly concentrated in Berlin, Frankfurt, and Dresden; throughout the UK; and the Netherlands. One year later, the plot was revealed to Gezo. Many of these stickers should still exist.

Church of t

See "t" above.

See Church of t main article page.

The Church of t is the national church and religion of Prussia. It has no single date of foundation, but rather developed naturally throughout the Civcraft series. There is no central body or written text, but its spirit lives on vibrantly. Every Prussian church or holy building is a Church of t.