The Agoriad

§lThe Agoriad§r A Brief History of the Agoran Federation §oA book by§r Tambien_Sinclair

I. Pre-Pantostado Era Old Agora

The city of Old Agora, the ancestral home of the Agoran Federation, began as a hamlet of Anarcho-Capitalists founded soon after the start of Civcraft 1.0. Several buildings were built, among the most prominent a large incomplete tower made of stone and

glass blocks. At some point soon after its founding, Old Agora was added to the global Civcraft maps, and was then abandoned. Old Agora lay untouched for months, simply waiting for someone to reinhabit her long empty streets.

II. The Foundational Era

Pantostado1066 was a relatively new Civcraft player, one with some strange beliefs and a big dream that would form the basis of what would become one of the biggest cities in Civcraft. He believed in squatting, in other words occupying abandoned

structures. This idea was and still is as of the time of writing somewhat novel in the world of Civcraft. The influence of the AnCaps can still be seen in all of Civcraft's structures. AnCaps believed in eternal property rights, and thus did

not believe in squatting. However, Old Agora had been abandoned for so long that the AnCaps who had founded it had either forgotten about it or left the server. Thus, there was no problem when Pantostado1066 moved into the ruins of the city with some IRL

friends and began to rebuild, redevelop, and revive the city. A central point of this revival was Pantostado1066's dream, which attracted several of the citizens that began to move to Old Agora, including myself. That dream was to build a University in

Civcraft, a place of learning where the knowledge of the server could be brought to be shared freely. I had spawned in the abandoned city of Mercer, and joined the history department of the Agora State University as well as constructing a museum

showcasing what I had found on my journeys. As the University grew, so did the city itself. It was during this era that such notable names as NukeJay joined what would become the Federation. However, this golden age was not to last.

III. The Agoran Republic and Al Kaowni

Following the increase of the population of Old Agora during the Foundational Era, Pantostado1066 decided that it was time to create an Agoran government. As such, he organized a basic government under the name of the

Agoran Republic. It was composed of several officials, such as the Mayor and the Dean of the University, who then voted on decisions for the Republic after being elected to their positions by the population. Pantostado1066 was easily elected as

the first Mayor of the Republic, DonVlinar as the first Senator, alpav as the first Tribune, galvan_ as the first Consul, and myself as the first Dean of the University. The new government quickly established itself, preparing for the establishment of

an official police force and authorizing the creation of a market inside the still incomplete Agora Tower. The city grew still further as people expanded the public farms and worked to increase their wealth and establish

themselves. However, as all Civcrafters sadly know, some people just want to watch the world burn. Al Kaowni was a group of people like that. Roleplaying Muslim terrorists, they rolled through Old Agora placing diamond

reinforced obsidian everywhere and destroying the still largely unreinforced city. Their reason? The Agora State University had no Muslim studies class. All attempts to fix the damage and rebuild Old Agora were met with destruction by Al Kaowni, which

continued to harass the city. Because of this, the government decided that Old Agora was no longer a viable settlement location and scouts were sent out to find a new location for the population of Old Agora to escape to. It was not long before one such

location was found, and the Agoran Exodus began.

IV. Early New Agora

Cressemopolis was another nearby AnCap settlement that had been abandoned early in Civcraft 1.0. Situated just over 1000 blocks from the site of Old Agora, with a convenient already-flattened plain and nether road connection, and

with only a few ruins, Cressemopolis appeared to be the perfect site to set up shop. After the announcement was made that Agora would be moving to this site, the populace of Old Agora quickly packed up and moved to the site, building dwellings along

the extant pathways that had been left by the Cressemopolisians on the Plain. Mayor Pantostado1066 quickly brought order to this chaos, and within a day roads were expanding and plots were being established. New

Agora quickly grew larger than Old Agora, absorbing several nearby hermits into her growing fold. Despite this growth, however, the Agoran Republic carefully maintained the secrecy of its existence and location, hoping to

avoid more massive griefings like the ones that had driven the Agorans out of Old Agora. This trend of steady growth in both size and prosperity continued for several months, at which point it was decided that New Agora was advanced enough to become

public. Around this time, the Agoran Republic had also gained stewardship over a small town started by Pantostado1066 called San Mateo. These two events marked the transition of the Agoran Republic into the next phase of its

existence: the Agoran Federation.

V. The New Agoran Cultural Revolution

The establishment of the Agoran Federation was an important transition in the history of Agora. Generally, it marked the creation of the pre-Breakup Agoran state as well as the establishment of the culture that would drive the growth of New

Agora, and later Aurora, and ultimately lead to the Breakup. With the reorganization of the government into a federal structure, the Mayor was renamed Chancellor, and later on the other positions were renamed to various “Secretary”

titles. Furthermore, the now-public nature of New Agora led to a huge population boom, giving rise to several new districts of New Agora, each with their own distinct culture within the greater Agoran culture. The Docks were known for

their lax building codes and general slumminess, the Swamps were known for their medieval-style structures, the Hills were known for claiming to be rich, and having lots of mansions. The older portion of the city was organized

into the Old Tribunal District, and was known for historic buildings as well as generally being the center of town. The Farms district, as it sounds, was known for having the public farms that fed the Agoran populace and drove Agoran industry. As time

went on, however, the Farms also became the site of major Agoran industry. A redstone specialist by the name of Captain_Neckbeard had moved to New Agora, and he brought with him several brilliant ideas that would jumpstart Agoran

industry. Firstly, he build an iron golem grinder which quickly flooded the iron and rose market throughout the city and allowed for the massive export of iron to less lucky cities. Following this marvel of engineering, he built a wood grinder

which utilized saplings, bonemeals, pistons, and a belt of gravel and sand to automatically push trees onto a “gathering plain” which could hold huge amounts of logs and drastically reduced the time and effort involved in logging. The New Agora

State University, the successor to the destroyed Agora State University, also became active during this time and experienced a boom in both construction and public awareness. Technically in existence since the founding of New

Agora, the University had languished under several Deans, and later Secretaries of Education, who had not really done much besides clear a bit more of the ruins. With the election of Pantostado1066 and later orikebise, however, the University quickly

became quite active, and the University Library became one of the largest repositories of knowledge in Civcraft. Generally, this period in Agoran history was characterized by massive growth economically, socially, and in

terms of population. All of this was accomplished despite the HCF War due to Agora’s policy of Neutrality at all Costs, which caused the HCF to largely ignore the city despite its burgeoning population. Several terror attacks

were perpetrated by the Al Kaowni, however New Agora’s newfound strength allowed for these attacks to be quickly cleaned up. This golden age of New Agora would survive political scandals and other attacks, lasting until the Apocalypse which ended 1.0.

VI. Aurora, the Breakup, and the Decline

Following the Apocalypse, Pantostado1066 took over the Agoran community yet again, albeit unconstitutionally. It was he that led the core players of New Agora, as well as some others that tagged along, to the new home of the

Federation: what is today known as Aurora. Placed near the coordinates of New Agora in 1.0, Aurora quickly swelled with newfriends through both constant advertising by the citizenry as well as the general population boom

following the Reset and the /r/Minecraft Influx. This population surge brought about the rise of several new figures in Agoran politics and history, Ogel6000 and taargus_. However, “Agora” was quickly changing. The influx of newfriends,

who had not absorbed the culture of 1.0 Agora, quickly overwhelmed the Agorans from 1.0, leading to a gradual cultural shift towards the newfriend culture and the creation of two distinct cultural groups within the city. The

Oldgorans consisted of the Agorans from 1.0 and a few people that they had assimilated into their cultural group, while the Newfriends (alternatively known as the newfags) consisted of the new populous. These two different cultures began to clash

due to differences in how they believed that the government should work. This led to what became known as the Split, the exodus of Oldgorans from the city of Aurora. At this point, the influence of AnCaps from nearby Bryn quickly took effect, and in a

few short months Aurora had transformed from a populous, governed city to an anarchist, mostly abandoned ruin. Thus died the Agoran Federation. Rest in peace, my eternal homeland. You are sorely missed.