Acadia: Difference between revisions

Acadia was a very culturally diverse nation, in part due to having a number of different cultural ancestors through some of Acadia's founders and citizens, most notably Adina, [[Moloka]], Javaya, and Norlund; Acadia's willingness to receive and embrace cultural influences from nations it was close to, most notably [[Wyvern]]/Fish and Columbia; and the large amount of people still fairly new to civ who stimulatedbrought organic growth of culture (not talking about mushroom farms).

OneCore of the things mostvalues central to Acadian culture waswere itsa love for freedom,; politics,; property rights,; capitalism,; and frontierism, and many Acadians prided themselves on their individualist nature. This core element dates 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, whichemphasizing emphasizeddemocracy theseand characteristicsstrong todefense aof goodpersonal extentrights. However, the vigor with which they were practiced, preached, and defended, mostly by an 'old' guard of people who were new to civ at the beginning of Acadia and remained active throughout, was certainly largely a unique aspect of Acadian culture. Of course, withgiven Acadia's cultural diversity, a significant opposing branchfaction existed, mostly composed of Molokan/Javayans and Acadians who grew close to [[Moloka|Molokan]]/Javayan cultural influences. This divide between those two sides was certainly most noticable on CivClassic as with the arrival of many Javayan players into Acadia enlarged their cultural influence considerably, whereas on CivUniverse the other side was culturally dominant. This divide echoed further through Acadia's politics, 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 simplified [[Tahar]], brought to Acadia from the Adina/Moloka/Javaya line, as the official language, featuring in many official documents and titles. The language has its own vocabulary and grammar, as well as its own unique alphabet which can be downloaded as letter font [https://discord.com/channels/768259087133048882/768259909078220841/928045068596699247 here]. Despite the prominent use of Tahar, there were only ever a handful speakers, mostly Javayans, and especially the 'old' guard of people who were new to civ at the beginning of Acadia and remained active throughout has remained reluctant to adopt the language. Nevertheless, enthusiasm for Tahar persisted among its supporters and the language is currently undergoing increased interest and attempts to improve its documentation and to increase its depth by instituting an original alphabetic system.

While Acadia never had an official national religion, on CivClassic, with the increased influence from the Adina/Moloka/Javaya line Ashahari, a branch from [[Indoja]], become close to a national religion as it was by far the most dominant civ-religion in Acadia and become central to Acadia's national identity. Two prominent political parties were formed after Ashahari values, though neither of them argued for a theocracy or an official national religion. Followers of Ashahari believe in a monotheistic deity, Ashahari, who is one with the universe. While being a non-corporal all-encompassing entity Ashahari manifests through Avatars. Many Ashaharist tend to focus their worship on specific avatars, leading to the in Acadia dominant denominations of Peleism; where Ashaharist worship the Avatar Pele, the manifestation of Ashahari as a cyclical force of creation and renewal, Lunism; where Ashaharists worship the Avatar Luna, the manifestation of Ashahari as a watcher against the evils of darkness emphasizing unity and harmony, and Melonist AshaharismAshahari; where, heavily influenced by Melonism, Ashaharists worship melons, believing them to be closest to Ashahari itself as entities of pure and total wholesomeness. Despite there being no lack of devotion, no Ashahari temple was eventually ever built in Acadia, although there have been multiple plans to do so, including a large castle build dedicated to the Ashahari People's Party featuringand including a temple by [[Kalipso]].

Apart from AshaharismAshahari some Acadians also practiced Melonism, a simple religion basedcentered onaround the worship of melons based on their wholesomeness and believed universality, and [[Bezism]].

Dating back to Acadia´'s beginnings on CivUniverse, where Acadia was fully located in the snow continent Hyperborea, Acadians have a strong preference for cold biomes. Unfortunately, on CivClassic Acadia had to settle for taiga as no snow land was available. Due to the lack of snow some Acadians never felt quite at home on CivClassic.

Another Acadian traditional preference is naming locations after computer -science pioneers. The capital of Acadia is always named after [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing Alan Turing]. Other places have been named after [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage Charles Babbage] (the State of Babbage); [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace Ada Lovelace] (Lovelace, capital of Babbage); [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson Ken Thompson] (the State of Thompson); and many more. It was only near the end of Acadia's time on CivClassic that, due to a surge of renewed interest, new location names, like Mana'thalas and Brethil'mir, were inspired by Tahar instead of computer-science pioneers.

Despite the strength of Acadia's democratic institutions, the nation was for a good part held together by a group sometimes known as the 'shadow government'. On CivUniverse, where this term originated and was most often used, this group consisted of a few Javayans and trusted Acadians, who kept things under control behind the scenes and set the priorities on the agenda for the Acadian Senate. While on CivUniverse this 'shadow government' was de facto institutionalized, on CivClassics it was more fluid and consisted of a group of core Acadians, with some of the Javayans now belonging to this group, who used their influence through the Acadian Senate as either Ministers or advisors, rather than around it. While, asafter the workings of this 'shadow government' became more well-known to the general public, somethis Acadiansaspect cameof toAcadian heavilypolitical opposeculture thiscame aspectunder of Acadianheavy governanceopposition as theymany considered it anti-democratic, Cortwade, founder and first Prime Minister of Acadia, at one point admitted that Acadia was always meant to have something like this, to make sure that democracy would not straylead Acadia too far away from the path of reason.

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. 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 fell prey to New Turing's magnitude; 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 country-sidecountryside 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 are floating on water due to a world generation error. According to rumors, a number of [[NATO]] fighter accounts were logged in this area, and an old hidden Acadian bunker with great treasure was to be found on one of these islands. 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]]'''.

Perhaps one of the most loved and respected builds in all of Acadia 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. So far it wasremains the only Acadian government building that was ever finished.

'''Landmark Buildings on CivClassic'''[[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 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.