Federative Ionian Empire

The **Federative Ionian Empire**, more commonly known as the Ionian Empire or just Ionia, is a constitutionally-bound imperial nation located across the map, with its core region contained within the Ionian seas around the coordinates (-4000, -4000). It is comprised of a core capital town, Minoa, and a number of outlying and semi-autonomous duchies. The Ionian Empire was founded with the help of money from the Duketanate of Gelre, and quickly grew to become the largest nation on the server by player count. Its participation in The Averian War, along with its central role in writing and hosting the peace deal, has allowed it to fill the power vacuum that the FAR and the Fermarian Republic once held. Despite this, it remains technologically behind with very few redstone farms, although it continues to be the most active nation on the server.

The Ionian Empire was started by S1 veterans DSTstudios, the former leader of Scientia, AdamTheAtom, the former leader of the Nauticus Imperium, and Peco173, who was not a S1 veteran. The nation has since grown extensively, with Peco173 leaving Minoa to become the founder and Duke of Herculaneum, while tens of other players have also joined, most notably HolyHereticc, Chipbar, and Banastictastic.

**HISTORY**

In order to understand the history of Ionia, it is important to understand how its founding town, Minoa, came to be. Minoa was founded on November 13, 2021, by DSTstudios, AdamTheAtom, and Peco173. The idea for an island nation had been attempted in S1 by AdamTheAtom, but the Nauticus Imperium had not been very successful. That being said, these three decided to try the idea again, and so they went out looking for a nice archipelago. Eventually, Minoa and her surrounding islands were chosen for their central location and fairly large size compared to the other sandbanks that dotted the surrounding Ionian Seas, and the name Minoa was chosen by Peco173 thanks to the Greek inspiration taken at the nation's founding. For the next few weeks, Minoa began undergoing extensive terraforming and construction, with the entire island eventually being flattened on two levels, and a good chunk of the underground being hollowed out for subterranean farms. While originally DSTstudios and AdamTheAtom ruled as co-mayors, DSTstudios eventually relinquished control of the town to AdamTheAtom due to finals and inactivity on DST's end.

A couple of weeks later, on November 30, one of the three leaders of Gelre, Archduke PolyHerb, approached AdamTheAtom with a proposal. PolyHerb would offer to fund Ionia in full, and the offer was quickly accepted. The name "Ionian Empire" was chosen because the surrounding seas of Ionia had been named "The Ionian Seas", representing Ionia's ambitions to control the entire ocean. Shortly after its founding, The Ionian Empire forged alliances with the Haleus Kingdom and the Duketanate of Gelre as a "quid pro quo" move to thank them for their assistance in her initial growth.

Over the next month, the Ionian Empire quickly expanded, forming two new duchies. The first was the duchy of Herculaneum, which was founded by Peco173, as he wanted his own town to work on. Soon after, new member Kerfuful joined Peco173 and soon became a rising star in Ionia's political environment. The second was the duchy of Natal, founded by Carno308. Carno has initially joined the server with little ambition, as he had not played Minecraft in years, but soon began grinding extensively, procuring more materials than any other member of Ionia. His eventual ambitions and anti-monarchist sentiments would lead to his duchy, Natal, peacefully separating from the Ionian Empire and declaring the Republic of Sifratis. Despite his ambitions, however, Sifratis failed to gain traction on the international stage and soon succumbed to inactivity.

The Ionian Empire now had to form a system of government; as a result, Emperor AdamTheAtom decided to hold an election for the position of Prime Minister. This election was hotly contested between DSTstudios, who favored a more pragmatic and opportunistic approach to diplomacy, and Kerfuful, who favored a more safe route while avoiding ideologically radical nations. DST won the election with just one vote more than Kerfuful, but the two soon reached an agreement to become co-ministers, creating the rank of Royal Advisor, which would be renamed to Imperial Senator after the creation of the Second Imperial Constitution.

The Ionian Empire would enter her first crises on the 3rd of December, when rogue player and suspected hacker Cubelify murdered Emperor AdamTheAtom at spawn, just outside of the neutral zone, and promptly refused to return the Emperor's armor and inventory. This resulted in AdamTheAtom, DSTstudios, and PolyHerb meeting with Cubelify at spawn, with the demand that he return the Emperor's items; however, he instead returned an unenchanted set of armor, confessing that he gave away the Emperor's garb to a friend. This resulted in PolyHerb murdering Cubelify and the seizure of all of Cubelify's items, including his duped books, which were yoinked by Carno308 and have yet to be found. Shortly after, Ionia began preparing for war against Cubelify's home nation of Libristan; these plans were thwarted just hours later when Libristan joined the FAR, although leaders AdamTheAtom and puyi\_ met in Atlantropa to sort out the situation and end the crisis.

Over the next three weeks following the Cubelify crisis, Ionia would expand greatly, building a large and decorative rollercoaster at spawn, along with erecting a massive fortification tower and a giant statue of Emperor AdamTheAtom, officially known as "Ionia Looks Onward" but more jokingly called the "Me Statue" by AdamTheAtom as he thought it would be funny to walk around with a throbbing ego. The spawn rollercoaster was later removed due to a planned expansion of spawn which would have "Thanos snapped" the coaster out of existence, resulting in the creation of Spawnoa, Minoa's spawn claim and a portmanteau of the words "spawn" and "Minoa".

This period of peace, stability, and expansion was abruptly ended on the 27th of December, 2021, when the FAR, led by Chipbar, launched an offensive war against Ionia's ally, the Kingdom of North America (KNA). The Averian War, as it came to be known, was a swift victory for the Ionian Empire and her allies, who would come together on the 29th of December in Ionia's capital city, Minoa, to sign the peace treaty and behead Chipbar with an anvil guillotine. The event has since become incredibly famous, bringing much prestige and notoriety to Ionia.

Following the signing of the peace deal, Ionia quickly came to fill the role of global power that Averia had once held, although it faced opposition in this role from the former Fermarian Monarchists, now organized into the militarist First Prussian Empire. The Prussians quickly got to work on forming a close bond with Gelre and Ionia, and then declared war on the KNA on January 7, 2022, just over a week after the previous attack by the FAR. Unlike the Averian attack, however, many nations were both allied with Prussia and understood the sheer amount of power and combat experience they held. Considering that the Prussians had defeated 20 people with a small army of just 4, many on the server, who were not skilled at PvP combat, were unwilling to once again defend the KNA in a war that they were sure to lose. The KNA-Prussian war would see only the Kingdom of East Umbria joining the KNA's side, with both eventually suing for peace with Prussia. Shortly afterwards, East Umbria was annexed by the KNA and the two became the Maple Leaf Empire.

During the KNA-Prussian War, Ionia found itself in an incredibly lucrative position; while Prussia was growing tired and fatigued in their war with the KNA and East Umbria, Ionia was able to convince former East Umbrian citizen Banastictastic to switch nations and create a new duchy in the Ionian Seas. This resulted in the founding of Zontanos, which became Ionia's second duchy. Along with this, former Prussian and Fermarian citizen HolyHereticc would defect from Prussia due to disagreements with Prussia's *Prinzregent* Jaerke, resulting in him joining Ionia and Minoa.

Things got even better for Ionia on the 13th of January, when Averian citizen and *de jure* leader Chipbar asked for Averia to be annexed into Ionia, with some stipulations. The Ionians were reluctant to accept at first, considering that Chipbar had planned to attack Ionia just a month prior, but things had changed; Chipbar simply wanted to be a part of an active nation considering the FAR's decline following The Averian War. After a referendum, and some changes in the agreement from former Triumvirate leaders puyi\_ and PhantomHeller, a personal union agreement was reached. Chipbar's home town of Tulkiria-Minyang left the FAR and joined Ionia, becoming its third duchy, while the remainder of the FAR entered into a personal union with Ionia, excluding PhantomHeller, who left the FAR and joined Prussia. This agreement made Ionia the largest nation on the server without Ionia having ever waged a single offensive war, and completely re-molded the map and inter-state interactions.

**INTERNAL POLITICS**

The Federative Ionian Empire is, of course, a federation of four duchies (Herculaneum, Tulkiria-Minyang, Zontanos, Paragua) and one capital region (Minoa). All five of these entities receive representation in the Imperial Senate, Ionia's legislative body. The Senate also has two other elected members, one "Lieutenant Senator" who deals with military affairs, and one "Diplomatic Senator", who advises the Emperor on matters pertaining to international diplomacy. Together, this body of seven works to discuss current events, draft bills, pass said bills into law, and can through an absolute vote remove the emperor from power, triggering an election for a new emperor. This, however, is only an emergency measure in case the current emperor proves to be incompetent or very bad at their job (or both). The senate also has the power to elect a new Emperor, either from a common man or from one within the Imperial Senate itself.

Speaking of the emperor, he is the executive and monarchical figure for Ionia. The emperor is elected for life by the Imperial Senate, and is allowed to serve until they resign, die in real life, or are voted out of office by absolute vote from the Imperial Senate. The emperor is the technical holder of all power within Ionia but is expected to serve on the people's behalf and to take their advice into consideration, especially that from the lieutenant and diplomatic senators. Decisions that cannot be made quickly by the Imperial Senate are made by the Emperor, including declarations of war, peace agreements, forming/breaking alliances, and more.

Ionia also has a court, the Imperial Court, which is the sole judicial body in Ionia. Standard US judicial procedures are used here and so far not a single case has been held, considering that there are very few disputes within Ionia and most disputes internationally are settled by the ICE.

Ionia also maintains a close relationship and personal union with the FAR since the 13th of January. This makes the current Emperor, AdamTheAtom, the Grand Duke of the Free Averian Regency as well. However, should a new emperor be elected, it is up to the FAR as to whether or not they accept the new Emperor of Ionia as their Grand Duke, or if they take a different path altogether. In practice both nations merely share a paralleled international diplomatic outlook and set of alliances, while their internal politics and militaries remain completely separate.

**CURRENT POLITICAL SITUATION**

As of right now, there is currently an election being held for the positions in the Imperial Senate. Once a month, on the first day of each month, an election is held for these positions, following nominations for the Imperial Court by the Senate and Emperor. The election results will be posted here on February 2nd, along with all preceding election results.