Loreism

Loreism is the ideology of StoneyStoner_, and of House Paxia. The ideology fundamentally posits that the goal of players on StoneworksMC should be to create a long lasting civilization, which necessitates creating a strong state and culture, ingraining aspects of that state and culture into its citizens so that they are personally important to them, and combining political and cultural identity so that players carry on the political and cultural identities of their communities into future generations. The ideology, as initially written by StoneyStoner_, neglects to give satisfactory advice on creating a state or making the state powerful in world politics, and mainly focuses on fostering a cultural and lore identity instead.
== Overview ==
Loreism observes that some states on Rathnir and Eldham have been consistently reborn with the same legacy, history, identity, name, and general homeland. Examples of this are Escharia, Tortuga, Viodoxa, Plagos, Simulami, Kartek, Eleanor, Vulpinia, the USSE, Aristios, etc. Loreism posits that creating a regenerative state like these (a Civilization) should be a player's ultimate goal, and that doing so requires success in the Path of Geopol and the Path of Culture. The Path of Geopol requires creating an independent state; becoming noticeably successful in geopolitics, imperialism, economics, or diplomatic influence; and inspiring personal pride and attachment to the political well being of the state. The Path of Culture requires creating a unique cultural / ethnic identity through developing strong religion, philosophy, history, and lore; practicing facets of this identity in events, roleplay, and character moments; and ingratiating this ethnic and cultural identity into the players of the community. 
The main argument of Loreism states that if a community strongly personally identifies with its state's political well being (Patriotism) and cultural identity (Identity), then the Civilization will not end with either the collapse of the state or the replacement of its core community members. Players who find either the success of the state important, or find the cultural / ethnic identity of the community important, will re-establish the state and continue its legacy as a Civilization. A Civilization only needs to rely on the strength of one of these facets in order to reproduce itself, however, a Civilization cannot be established without the combination of both.
=== Community ===
Community is simply the collection of players that come together to form a group. This usually involves some level of commitment and activity on the server, as active and commited players are the ones who define the group's geopolitics and culture.
=== State ===
The state is the a soveriegn community's towns, borders, presence on the map, political identity, and discord organizations, that engage in diplomacy, geopol, and wars. These are usually called "nations" on the server (although the word "state" and "patriotism" are used here in order to differentiate from real life philosophies of Nationalism and Nationhood). Many players think that obtaining a state and gaining geopolitical success is the end goal of the server. This is only partially true. The state is the most well defined and obvious marker of a group's individual status and identity, as it serves as the basic unit of a community through its recognition on maps, national announcements, and geopolitical discussions. A state is usually controlled by a single community, which may creating an empire by exerting influence and domination over other vassal communities (also recognized as states). However, true success on Stoneworks has more dimensions than just the continuence of a state.
=== Patriotism ===
Patriotism is simply when the community largely feels a personal obligation, importance, and attachment to the geopolitical success of the state. Most large empires on Stoneworks develop out of smart, lucky, and patient geopolitical moves, and they are maintained and grown by players' patriotism. The stage of Patriotism requires that the ordinary active community member feels proud to be part of their state for its political status, as being part of a dominant empire is inspiring for players' personal ego, and guarantees that players can be influential in the global politics of Stoneworks. A small state can develop a strong sense of patriotism, but this does not come out of pride in imperialism and domination over others, moreso the devotion to their group's survival and success over geopolitical obsticles, or other fields of geopolitical success like in diplomacy or trade. Patriotism is simply the stage of development where a community deeply cares about the success of its political identity.
=== Culture ===
Culture is the simple form of having religion, philosophy, race, lore, customs, or recorded history that players attribute to their own group. This is the basic 'world building' aspect of the game, which most players lightly deal with, and a handful of players (RPers, lore masters, librarians, historians, artists, skilled builders, wiki writers, LARPers, etc) heavily deal with. Communities on Stoneworks generally seek to create their own sovereign state far more readily than to create their own unique culture, as cultures are loosely defined, difficult to directly engage with, and take a lot of effort and creativity for very little immediate material reward. However, culture serves as a community's unifying social bond that exists outside of politics, working as a strengthening, unifying force in the core community that runs a state. A community can have a vast empire without its own definite culture (such as the Silver Coalition and Uraki Imperium), but a community can also (more rarely) have a strong culture without a state. In some cases, culture become so strong that they preserve the existence of a group's ethnic identity without the basic unit of a state, as was the case with the stateless Santonians in Eldham, and the Garfists in Rathnir.
=== Identity ===
Identity is simply when the community largely feels a personal obligation, importance, and attachment to their unique culture and ethnicity. Identity is a social phenomenon that binds players together as a single 'people', which serves as a heavily unifying force within the group itself. Establishing an identity requires that players are personally attached to their religion, philosophy, the personal status of their characters within the group, an architectural style, and symbols that represent the group. A strong Identity is generally more stable than the geopolitical success of an empire and Patriotism, as an identity can only be dismantled when a community is quickly replaced by uninitiated newbies and outsiders, when many of the important community members leave and become inactive, or when players actively abandon their group identity for another. While Identity may be a politically unifying force within a community, it can also be a politically disunifying force when a nation controls several different regional communities with strong identities.
=== Civilization ===
Civilization is the combination of Patriotism and Identity. In real life terms, it is most similar to the 19th century conception of the European Nation State, but it works a bit differently. For a community to create a Civilization, which will reiterate its nation and culture despite geopolitical or cultural disruptions, the community must combine its Patriotism and Identity. The players' personal attachment to their state's geopolitical success must extend to the prosperity of its culture and identity; and the players' personal attachment to their group's culture and ethnicity must extend to the prosperity of its diplomacy, politics, and influence. With both established and maintained, a community can weather external pressures that disrupt either its geopolitics or culture. If the community's nation collapses, players who are attached to its cultural identity will be driven to reform its nation with the same ethnic identity and legacy as the collapsed nation. If the community's culture is replaced, players within the nation will tend to reform and re-evaluate the group culture. National collapses are far more frequent than cultural collapses, so cultural identity should generally be seen as more perpetuating of a Civilization than a political identity. If a Civilization loses either widespread Patriotism of Cultural Identity, it becomes vulnerable to a collapse from which it will not recover.
== Analysis of Examples ==
=== Second Empire of Uldarash ===
The Second Empire of Uldarash was a powerful empire dominated by its constituent Kingdom of Aurora. It saw relative geopolitical success and internal stability until a civil war sparked over a succession crisis, which pitted three of its minor regions/kingdoms against the rest. While Aurora / the Empire won, this civil war fomented regional ethnic identities, and any semblence of a national, empire-wide identity was lost. When another political crisis erupted that threatened a second civil war, the empire collapsed into regional states that adhered more to its regional identities. A third Empire of Uldarash was briefly declared from a few unifying kingdoms, but the Uldarashi political and ethnic identities were almost completely lost, so it fell apart very quickly.
=== The Uraki Imperium ===
Uraka was an extremely strong state that did not develop an internal group culture or ethnic identity that defined its core group of people. While the Uraki Imperium had a strong sense of Patriotism, the lack of a strong culture and ethnic identity stopped Uraka from forming a longterm Civilization that regrew its state time and time again. However, Uraka's Patriotism was strong enough to inspire two other empires to form as successor states- the Shirokaneza/Velerin Empire, and the Second Uraki Imperium. These two empires were fully reliant on Uraka's political identity and not any cultural or ethnic identity, as its founders had connections to the successful emperor Neo Aurelian. They used the Uraki political identity to bolster their power, but had no ties to any original Uraki lore, roleplay, religion, philosophy, etc. 
=== The Garfists ===
The Garfists were a religious group that grew out of the northern peninsula of Sparwood. Through war with their neighbor Akratia, they were expelled from their homeland of Greenstem to the northern lands of Bardonia and Rathnir's north. The religious identity of Garfists kept their community alive and intact through this political trial, and gave them enough social cohesion to return to Greenstem, defeat the Akratians, and join a federative state that recognized their community and sovereignty. 
=== The Santonians ===
Santos has a similar story to the Garfists. They were originally a small nation that worshipped the Stone Guardian. This group was exiled from their homeland after being conquered by Kunir, but the Identity of a single player named HailToMichael founded new homes in Kaladina and Xeka, keeping the Santonian identity alive. Eventually they were able to found their own vassal state back in their homeland, and their cultural identity briefly had political recognition too.
Category:Traveler's Era