How to Politics

When managing a Town or Nation, most people immediately think of outsiders and what they bring to the table. Good or bad?

This page was made alongside a longstanding Member of the Community. The Leader of the Nation of Mana, Tomma.

Your goals, and understanding the difference between Nations and Towns.

While both Towns and Nations have the ability to claim, its important to understand that their claims carry different weights. This also reflects greatly on what you can accomplish with a Town vs a Nation.

Before you even create a Town or a Nation, you should consider where your place is in the world, and what you want to accomplish.

If your goal, is to live a peaceful life, away from politics, I highly recommend you do not form a Nation. One of the key differences between Towns and Nations is that Nations can declare wars. The rules state that sometimes Town vs Town wars are permitted, but, this in reality is unlikely to happen and would only be allowed on situations where two towns are too close, and have some sort of disagreement. Nations, however, can attack other Nations by decree. 

By deciding to create a Nation, you let other people know you want to have this ability. Which immediately puts you on the map as a potential target. While its true that a lot of people do not think this way, and that you may have peaceful intentions, but that's not how most Nation leaders think, or want to think.

I'm not trying to discourage you from making a Nation, or to get into geopolitics. I'm telling you to be aware of your surroundings and what other leaders think. They are always watching. Including me.

- Tomma

Nation and Town Claims

Town and Nation claims work differently and serve different purposes.

Town claims are direct, they are established via Towny Towns, chunks that you own with a town are classified as Town claims. These claims and their protection is guaranteed by the Server. 
Nation claims are roleplay orientated, and do not involve any in-game claiming mechanic like with Towns. Nation claims are usually big, and they are entirely protected by your Nation, and its ability to enforce. Outsiders can do as they please with Nation claims, and we, as the Server Management, wont interfere in any way.

Wars can be fought both on Nation and Town claims, but where it truly matters is Town claims. Wars can only be ended by force is by capturing Town plots of your enemy.

Treaties, Contracts

Similar to most politics related mechanics, treaties, contracts, and other similar mechanics are fully established and enforced by players. The Server Management will never enforce them and violating them doesn't violate any rules.

Breaking Treaties and Contracts can sometimes violate the rules depending on what they contain. Some deals could be classified as Stealing if proper context is met. Whether or not this is the case, is usually decided by asking "Could this happen in real life?". For example, some trade agreements between Nations are sometimes not fulfilled by one of the sides, via concrete rules that would be classified as Stealing, but roleplay politics could also label it as a valid roleplay strategy. In uncomfortable cases like this, the Server Owner has the final say in the matter as per the Rule of Context.

Foreign Alliances, Internal Governments

Both Alliances and National Governments are classified as player initiated Roleplay mechanics. This means, their functionality is not enforced by the Server and we do not interfere in any way.

This can create awkward situations.
For example, a Nation is a server based entity, meaning it has both server protection and roleplay elements. Only a Nation leader can declare a war, manage member towns, etc. aka, "Own the Nation". What if a Nation Leader is voted out by its people and they refuse to forfeit their server-sided leadership role? Roleplay speaking, they are not the leader anymore, but regular players do not have the server permission to remove Nation leaders. 

In situations like this, there are usually 2 paths that can be taken. 

1. The People rise up and start a civil war.
   This is a lot of work, for both the players and the server management, but if appropriate context is there, it may be the only option.
2. The Server does interfere and removes the nation leader.
   If the opposing leader has no chance of winning a civil war (has no backing etc.) the Server management might forcibly remove that person and establish the new leader.

Foreign Alliances on the other hand, have no server sided elements, and are entirely political. Their functionality and enforcement fully depend on the players.