Volantian Federation

Volantian Federation
VF
The land claims of the nations of Volans (excluding Girane) which would've made up the VF
General
Membership	Nova Danzilona Endeavor First Hearth Cascade Whisper Girane
Headquarters	Volans
Government
Government	Parliamentary Democracy
Governing document	Constitution of the Volantian Federation
• Diplomat	Vacant
• Commander	Vacant

The Volantian Federation (abbreviated VF) was a proposed political union between all of the nations of Volans, a shard on Civcraft 3.0. First proposed on August 26, 2016, it was intended to be the formal successor to the United Provinces of the Plus-Plus (U3P) from Civcraft 2.0, where most residents of Volans had come from. The creation of the VF was in talks for many months even before the beginning of 3.0 and was spearheaded by Callid13 of First Hearth (and prevously of Holy Tree from 2.0).

The proposed federation differed from its predecessor in that it was mainly a political union rather than an economic one, which was the defining characteristic of the U3P. Though it was intended for each member nation to retain its sovereignty and independent foreign relations, the constitution of the VF included the creation of the Council, which could make laws and policies that supercede those of its members. Composed of delegates based proportionally on each member's population, the Council could also appoint a Diplomat, who would deal with foreign matters regarding the entire shard, and the Commander, who would be in charge of a defence force tasked with overseeing all of its members' fighters and internal police forces.

Though most Volantians agreed in theory to a shard-wide union, the VF was heavily criticised for being too intrusive in the domestic affairs of its members. Some critics accused Callid personally of crafting a constitution that would give him and First Hearth (by far the smallest member population-wise) disproportionate power in deciding members' policies. This claim was reinforced by the inclusion of a Civil War clause, which allowed the Commander to declare a civil war in any member nation and choose to recognise an opposing government within that member. Ultimately, the Volantian Federation never came to be when every member nation besides First Hearth voted against its implementation on September 9, 2016.

Background

Before Civcraft 3.0, most of the players that would go on to inhabit Volans resided in the member nations of the United Provinces of the Plus Plus on Civcraft 2.0. Following a number of griefer attacks, the U3P was created at the end of 2013 with the original intention of empowering the small towns that littered the +,+ through a common military alliance that also included shared infrastructure, such as factories, rail lines, and an XP exchange. Though it had no formal legislature, each member nation would vote for two of their own Senators to send to govern the U3P. Senators could not legislate any policy that could supercede individual domestic policy, but were in charge of coordinating alliance-wide projects and foreign relations, which included the appointment of a Secretary General and Secretary of Defence. As previously mentioned, the main benefits of the U3P were economic ones, and the effects of its political decisions varied. Smaller nations in the U3P (many of which had <5 residents) like Little Latvia and Pella were very involved in the U3P for a sense of a larger community that they could not find solely in their home nation. Residents of bigger members like New Danzilona, however, might barely notice the political effects of the U3P, and only a small number of Danzilonans were ever Senators to the alliance (peakman2 and neondan99 were the U3P Senators for NDZ for most of its existence). Even so, all members shared common values, culture, and politics, and each member would come to the assistance of any other member, no matter how small.

When 2.0 ended in January 2016, the residents of the U3P became even more united than previously. With platforms like Slack and Discord gaining popularity among Civvas to replace the Civcraft mumble that would cease to exist, all of the members of the U3P would go on to share a common Slack group, which then evolved into a common Discord group midway into 3.0. As such, the Threepers planned for 3.0 collectively, at all times attempted to reach a consensus from all residents of the previously independent members. A result of these planning discussions led the Threepers to decide to populate the shard of Volans, and though most had plans to form independent nations to succeed those of 2.0, they all decided to start 3.0 from a shared headquarters, which they named First Hearth. By the end of the first week of 3.0, the entire Volans was populated by these successor nations, and First Hearth became its own recognised nation run by Callid. With this new independence, however, came renewed calls for a proper alliance that would succeed the U3P, leading Callid to propose the creation of the Volantian Federation.

Notable Features

Though most residents intended for the shard-wide alliance to be a mainly economic and military one like the previous U3P, most of the notable and controversial features of the VF were introduced as political ones.

As a departure from U3P, a formal legislature called the Council would exist, and the Council would exist of delegates voted on by its members nations, of which the number was proportional to their populations as opposed to every member receiving two equally. Though many Volantians agreed to proportional representation in principle, the feature was a point of contention in that it allowed the individual member nations to still define their own citizenship policy. Critics argued this would allow less active members to artificially inflate their population numbers with a more lax citizenship process, leading to their disproportionate representation on the Council. Callid attempted to rectify this by proposing a seperate VF citizenship in addition to citizenship in individual members, but this was rejected when the process for it was never created.Ultimately, most Volantians wanted the return of equal representation and noted there were no problems with it when it existed in the U3P, but Callid would not budge on proportional representation.

A unique feature not before seen in previous U3P nations was the introduction of defining when a member nation is in a Civil War. Originally at the mercy of Callid's own interpretation, Volantians argued that the Council would need to declare a state of Civil War by vote before effects could take place.When it was declared that a member was in a state of Civil War, their current delegates were mandated to remain delegates until the end of the war, and in the event that one stepped down, a new one could not be replaced. If a Civil War went on for longer than 3 days, the Council could choose which side of it to recognise as the legitimate government of that member nation. Critics argued that this was a huge overstep and could be used to overthrow a legitimate government by Volantians who did not reside under it.

More confusingly, it was not actually the delegates themselves that were divided proportionally, but rather seats to the Council, to which there could be multiple delegates. Though representation would still be proportional, there could be as many delegates to any one seat as a member nation wished, but they would collectively make up only one vote per seat. Critics argued that this was unnecessary, to which Callid responded that it was actually their opposition that was unnecessary.

By far, the most controversial feature of the constitution was the explicit authority of the Council to make laws that could override those of individual members. Most Volantians saw this as an offensive overstep of the VF's power and a violation of their individual sovereignty. Callid rebuked by saying that their delegates in the Council could always be replaced if they didn't like the laws they were passing, to which critics noted that those new delegates could still get out-voted by delegates from other members. Callid soon stopped discussing the point, which made it to the final version of the constitution.

Aftermath

After the VF constitution was shot down by the majority of Volantians on September 9th, the shard's nations would continue to closely cooperate, still sharing the same Slack and Discord they used to plan for 3.0. However, a new shard-wide alliance and official successor to the U3P would never again be proposed. To this day, Endeavor is widely recognised as the closest thing to a successor as it was inhabited by the largest number of Threepers from the biggest variety of former towns.

When 3.0 ended, the former Volantians that still wanted to play would go on to found Provincia on CivClassics 2.0 in the summer of 2017. Callid would join them, but he would leave Civ shorty after following a dispute over factories that resulted in his killing.