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==== Varkonia Alone ====
[[File:Varkonian XP Propaganda 2.png|thumb|Varkonian Propaganda featuring the King of Nox]]
For about a week after the leaving the UNC, Varkonia was without an alliance organization. The first action Varkonia took during this time was to declare
Additionally, relations had soured extensively with their former ally of Bloom. This was the result of Truckman making inaccurate claims about Varkonia during and after the UNC dissolution, to which Varkonia responded with an official Communique to Bloom<ref>https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRQRo5ONjjfsc72cUH5W5rjNkO9QH9APxkSKcHLqhogvS-Ntnfs6WvEYMzPukIr4j8puRKENVf-rOnr/pub</ref>, which later became known as the Denunciation of Bloom. It was increasingly believed in Varkonia that Bloom in general had deteriorated in terms of competence and had become a liability that could not be trusted. It was decided that, rather than engage with Bloom diplomatically and then be disappointed by their unreliability, Varkonia should instead avoid engaging with Bloom completely.
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==== The SPQR Rail Incident ====
On the evening of August 16, 2019, the Holy Jaded Empire (HJE) blocked off the SPQR-Commonwealth rail that was built and maintained by Langly, prominent citizen of SPQR<ref name=":1">https://www.reddit.com/r/civclassics/comments/crstpo/hje_has_blockaded_sqprs_cw_rail_to_punish_for/</ref>. This was civilian infrastructure being used mainly by the people of SPQR and Commonwealth for trading purposes between the two distant and neutral nations. SPQR maintained its neutrality after the UNC dissolved, and the Commonwealth was also neutral to this point in the NATO-Mir war. Since it was a public rail, there was no strategic value in it either being operational or closed. Any military power would assume the rail to be snitched in part or in full, making it easily trapped and thus too dangerous to use in warfare. It was therefore surprising that HJE would shut down the rail without any dialogue, and furthermore that they would begin griefing it, especially considering that the
''The Entente's involvement in this was voluntary. Only Varkonia was dutybound to assist their Roman allies, but we as a whole decided to assist our member in this matter. This is not in the least because we believe the SPQR to be in the right - especially in light of the NATO border incursion which took place yesterday (including NATO forces removing snitches well within Roman territory). Trying to bully the SPQR whilst they were literally in the middle of a meeting with ComradeNick to resolve this issue diplomatically is not something many of us were willing to stomach in face of a call for help. For those who tend to justify their every action in the form of whataboutisms: this is in stark contrast to the patient and highly compromising attitude the SPQR has had during negotiations and during the preceding border drama.''
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==== The Second Transition of Government between Varkonia and Nevrast ====
On August 30, 2019, Nevrast officially joined the Grand Duchy of Varkonia as a province and Seldomshock became a Senator. This was largely due to deteriorating relations between Seldom an Corvus, as well as a desire on Varkonia's part to help Nevrast should Corvus lash out. It was also strategically important because Nevrast was just south of Corvus and it would be very difficult for Corvus to reach Varkonia without setting off snitches within the swamps of Nevrast. Unlike the first transition of government between Varkonia and Nevrast, this would not be considered a meme later on. As a result of joining Varkonia, Nevrast also fell under the protection of the Entente by default.
==== Varkonia Goes to War with LSD and Laconia ====
''Main Article: [[Entente-Laconia War]]''
[[File:VarkoniaVault Sept2019.png|thumb|12-ring Varkonia Vault in September 2019, with functioning snitch grid marked by coordinates and sky defenses.]]
In early September, 2019, the group known as the [[LSD|Latvian Soccer Dogs (LSD)]], led by [[ashnwill]], was building a vault in the southwest quadrant of the map. This group, and in particular, their leader, had an extremely bad reputation with Varkonia. A debate was had within the Entente over how to react to this news. The Red Duke argued for immediate intervention to disable the vault that was being built, known as [[Hotel California]], on grounds that the group operating it had a very poor reputation and that they would use it as a base to raid Icenia and other nations. Others in the Entente, such as Frensin, agreed, and a military operation was planned to swiftly capture the nascent vault, pearl any defenders, and snitch it. A large motivating factor was the concern that, with the NATO-Mir war dragging on into its 7th month, allowing LSD to build a vault in the region would inevitably lead to a future conflict with the Entente. It was the opinion of the Red Duke then that, if conflict was to be inevitable, then the Entente, which was militarily prepared, should strike immediately before the LSD could fortify, which would have made it much more difficult to deal with later on. This was a major reversal of the neutrality Varkonia vouched for at the onset of the NATO-Mir war, primarily because the Varkonia Vault was now nearly complete and much more easily defended. On September 7, 2019, the attack would commence, with combined forces from the Entente and SATO disabling the LSD vault. The Red Duke and the King of Nox would both join the efforts in person. The next day, Ashnwill would surrender himself, and he would end up in the Varkonia Vault. An official post would be made by Britishwanderer explaining the situation<ref>https://old.reddit.com/r/civclassics/comments/d1d0dj/the_ententes_statement_regarding_yesterdays/</ref>.
On 28 September, [[Laconia]] attempted to tear down the LSD vault pyramid, with intent to transport thousands of diamonds back to Laconia. A force of 13 players was brought to ensure the safe transport of the materials. The Entente noticed the movements and prepared for an attack, suspecting that they would be tearing down the vault pyramid for diamonds. The Entente decided to delay the attack until the LSD and Laconian force had left the remains of the vault. A joint contingent of Mir and Entente forces chased the LSD-Laconian force. 6 Laconians were pearled, leading to a loss of ~700 diamonds. All of the soccer dogs in the Laconian force survived, except for Topher3001 who was exile-pearled (but later freed by mistake). One Laconian leader, Tofee_Dodger, was also pearled. This was the most decisive naval battle in CivClassic 2.0 history, being a total loss for LSD-Laconian forces, and each pearled player dropping stacks of diamonds upon their demise. Varkonia upgraded ashnwill to be prison-pearled after this event, where he would remain until the end of the server, with widespread support, particularly among Icenia, encouraging his continued imprisonment.
The direct involvement of Laconia in this matter expanded the conflict from just Entente-LSD to Entente-Laconia. In Early October, 2019, the Entente attacked Mt. Doom, Laconia's capital. The timing was not ideal for Varkonia, with only Seldomshock able to participate on behalf of Varkonia, significantly less than was expected. The Entente forces were repelled. Entente analysts believe the defeat was due to several factors:
# The attack was initially staged at bedrock, then later in a sub-surface skybridge. This meant the tunnel and low-lying skybridge were vulnerable to Laconian counter-attacks.
# Varkonia did not provide any commanders for this assault, resulting in fewer players able to organize the effort.
# Exiled players were able to thwart the advances of the attackers by reinforcing obsidian in the path of the attack. Since they were already exiled, the only way to deal with this was to prison pearl them or to dedicate a handful of attackers specifically to killing them.
# City Bastion mechanics were broken, allowing players to place them and immediately reinforce them to full-strength, making it almost impossible to advance the attack bridge due to not being able to reinforce it.
The Entente's attack tunnel was captured and disabled by Laconia, who began mustering additional forces, including NATO-aligned and Corvus-aligned fighters on alts. On October 17, Laconia counter-attacked, with the support of Baes20, and griefed portions of Hjaltland's 2nd Vault, Eternity. This happened due to the odd hours of the attack, the incomplete vault snitch grid, and the Entente not expecting Laconia to go on the offensive. The attack was a reminder that wars are complicated, and that the Entente was not infallible, reducing the deterrence it had previously enjoyed.
==== Imprisonment of Evocator ====
[[File:Corvus Pearl.png|thumb|Seldom's alt adjacent to the Corvus Vault, being chased by rain_of_fire6 and exile-pearled Evocator (Ronald_Raiding). Progress on the Corvus Vault can be seen in mini-map in the top right.]]
Simultaneously to the escalation in conflict with the LSD and Laconia, Corvus was hard at work building a vault and snitching the trench that fully surrounded their city. By chance, Seldomshock had logged in to an alt account that was inside Corvus while he was looking for accounts to send to the Entente war effort in the south. He happened to be directly adjacent to the Corvus vault, which didn't exist when he last logged out on that account. Seldom was able to gather intelligence on Corvus and its and level of construction. Significant efforts had been undertaken since the pearling of Evocator, who was online at the time, likely aiding and commanding the construction efforts. Seldomshock was pearled in Corvus, and then later released after he explained he was just trying to get his account out of there. Following some consideration, Varkonia came to the realization that Corvus was preparing for War with Varkonia over Evocator, and their militarization efforts were an alarming wakeup call that Varkonia would soon be on the frontlines of war. To slow their efforts and disorganize their players, the Varkonian senate voted to upgrade Evocator to prison pearl. Evocator was imprisoned on September 23, 2019, and would remain there until the end of the server.
==== Outbreak of War with Corvus ====
Several days after being imprisoned, Evocator made a post on the subreddit, placing a 500d bounty on all Varkonian citizens, and a 250 bounty on all citizens of the Entente (later revised to 500d on all Varkonians and 250d on all fighters in the Entente)<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/civclassics/comments/d9st8j/upgraded_to_prison_pearl_by_varkonia_without_any/</ref>. This was considered as a declaration of war on Varkonia, and by extension, the Entente. The Senate debated whether to directly attack Corvus before it could further complete its vault. Intelligence reports indicated that the Corvus trench had not yet been fully snitched, and that a sneak attack may be possible via a skybridge. Varkonia went to the Entente and plans were drafted for an assault on Corvus. Before this could happen, the situation escalated with Laconia and Laconia would take precedence over Corvus.
[[File:Ulexos.png|thumb|Senate discussion from 2018 about Ulexos illegally snitching Gabon.]]
Ulexos, a wanted criminal from the UNC days for illegal snitching, was spotted near the border of Nevrast on October 1st, 2019<ref>https://i.imgur.com/sZLPYjW.png</ref>, and was subsequently pearled and vaulted in Varkonia. It was unknown at the time that Ulexos was a member of Corvus, however it soon became clear that he was not only just a member of Corvus, but also a high-ranking member, because he was the owner of the group D<ref>https://i.imgur.com/521BJ7k.png</ref>, which Impasse and then later Corvus had their main snitches on. While Ulexos and Corvus demanded answers, Varkonia was trying to put together the pieces and consider who it was that they had just pearled.
The next day, October 2nd, 2019, coltguy97, a relatively inactive member of Corvus, seemingly inexplicably walked into the city of Varkonia. Seldomshock informed him to not travel to Varkonia, although Coltguy would dispute this and claim he was never informed. He was promptly pearled and vaulted in Varkonia, bringing the total of Corvus-affiliated pearled held by Varkonia up to 3. Coltguy made a post about this on the subreddit, whereby Corvus attempted to give Varkonia bad PR for its actions<ref>https://old.reddit.com/r/civclassics/comments/dc62yy/dont_try_to_be_a_tourist_in_varkonia_worst/</ref>.
==== Corvus Attacks the Varkonia Vault ====
After the pearling of Coltguy, that same night Corvus launched a major military operation into Varkonian territory. 8 Corvus accounts were involved in digging a tunnel from Corvus to Varkonia, with a bunker being built just outside of Varkonia’s city. It was discovered and Entente troops rapidly moved up to the Varkonia Vault to mount a defense. The Corvus forces retreated, and Varkonian-led forces closed in and removed the set-up site, found to contain attack supplies including many compacted obsidian. Varkonian-led forces then travelled down the tunnel to Corvus, where the involved accounts began logging back in. Varkonia went about digging its own tunnel to Corvus, however, there was a push towards de-escalation before any further operations were conducted. No fighting occurred, Corvus was simply out-maneuvered from having been spotted, and they abandoned their effort to attack Varkonia's vault. It's clear that Coltguy was simply bait, whereby Corvus was hoping to break the Varkonia vault overnight and more easily break the pyramid, the reinforcement of which would not be fully matured from Coltguy being vaulted earlier that same day.
==== Corvus-Varkonia Negotiations ====
On October 5, 2019, The General Secretary of the Entente established communications with Roguex7, who represented Corvus. A preliminary ceasefire was agreed while talks were arranged<ref>https://i.imgur.com/kZXRIeS.png</ref>. On the 8th of October, Varkonia reached out to Corvus to inform them of a tunnel that had been constructed towards Corvus, dating back to the initial onset of war. It was hoped that Varkonia could explain that this tunnel was not a violation of the ceasefire<ref>https://i.imgur.com/hX1ctHO.png</ref>. Corvus tried to characterize it as Varkonia having violated the Ceasefire, but this was dispelled. Varkonia believed it was actually Corvus which was violating the ceasefire, and proved this through documentations by Seldomshock. On October 12, Corvus-aligned pvpers were responsible for several violations of the ceasefire, making incursions into Nevrast and attempting to pearl Seldomshock, who then placed a bounty on Mikhail_Smirnov<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/civclassics/comments/dgqi0a/35d_bounty_on_mikhail_smirnov/</ref>. Corvus responded indicating that those actions were not sanctioned, with Rogue saying he was getting upset that people in Corvus were undermining the peace process<ref>https://i.imgur.com/abYlmIz.png</ref>. Negotiations were tense, and Varkonia was increasingly getting frustrated, because from their perspective Corvus was attempting to take the moral high ground on the Subreddit, meanwhile negotiations were stalled and they were violating the cease-fire regularly in Nevrast. Corvus then attempted to accuse Varkonia of planning an attack, then withdrew that accusation<ref>https://i.imgur.com/lFuymjz.png</ref>.
On October 20, 2019, Corvus pearled ObtainableSpatula, leader of ImperialTruidance, member of the UDF, which was neutral in all of the ongoing conflicts<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/civclassics/comments/dkda36/why_did_corvus_attack_and_pearl_a_head_of_state/</ref>. This was seen as an escalation of Corvus aggressiveness in general.
The Next day, on October 21, 2019, NovaCeasar, leader of SPQR, was pearled in Roma, the capital of SPQR, while offering to give a tour to what turned out to be a member of Corvus. She was vaulted in Corvus, with the promise of being freed in a reasonable amount of time<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/civclassics/comments/dkse3i/pearled_in_roma_by_epicydes_and_held_by_stim_in/</ref>. She would soon be transferred to the HJE and remain pearled there until the end of the Infinity War. This was highly regrettable to the Entente, which was engaged in warfare on two fronts and due to the server mechanics at the time, breaking a defended vault would be nearly impossible. Should the wars continue, SPQR would have to be undefended due to its distance from friendly nations and proximity to hostile nations.
On October 23, 2019, since private negotiations were not getting anywhere, Varkonia made a public offer for peace to Corvus and explained it actions up to that point<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/civclassics/comments/dm3y4u/regarding_coruvs_an_explanation_and_a_way_forward/</ref>. This was seen widely as a positive step. The main points of the peace offer were:
* Varkonia releases Coltguy97 immediately.
* Varkonia holds a trial for Ulexos, who's maximum sentence would be 1 month exiled.
* Varkonia releases Evocator after a maximum sentence of 6 months. He could be released after 3 months if determined to be on good behavior by the Varkonian Senate.
* Varkonia and Corvus cease hostilities towards each other.
* Varkonia and Corvus agree to non-agression towards each other going forwards.
These conditions were widely seen as extremely lenient- Varkonia would commit to releasing everyone currently held by them, and Corvus would not have to offer anything in material, simply allow the people currently pearled to serve finite sentences and promise not to attack Varkonia. Evocator rejected the proposal, and Varkonia withdrew the offer. To Varkonia, this showed that Corvus was not interested in peace, but rather wanted an escalation of conflict. Varkonia would continue to hold the Corvus pearls until the end of the server, unable to reach agreements with any of the players.
The result of the failed negotiations was astonishment at Corvus's refusal and off-and-on skirmishes between Varkonia and Corvus. Several new accounts periodically would get pearled in Varkonia on their way to Corvus, as the Varkonia Vault was located in the middle of an ocean that new players would often use to travel through. Seldom would continue to evade all attempts at pearling him in Nevrast.
==== The Transition of Government between Varkonia and Aurum ====
[[File:Aurum.png|thumb|Flag of Aurum]]
On October 16, 2019, Aurum, led by Deserve (SirFriendzone)<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/civclassics/comments/deoact/announcing_aurum_a_callout_for_something_better/</ref>, requested to join the Grand Duchy of Varkonia soon after its formation. The territory was the easternmost so far to request to join Varkonia, and was rapidly approved by unanimous vote of the Senate. Aurum would be a valuable and strategically important part of Varkonia near the center of the map. Aurum contained grasslands, mesa, desert, and some inherited builds and structures from earlier in the map. SirFriendzone invested significant wealth into developing factories for Aurum, including a compactor, xp cauldron, and ore smelter. Snitches were also put down in Aurum to help with its defense, and Aurum would contribute diamonds to the Varkonian war effort.
== Government ==
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[[Category:CivClassic 2.0]]
[[Category:In Progress]]
[[Category:Northwest Countries (CivClassic 2.0)]]
==References==
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