Four Hectares
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| Flag of Four Hectares | |
| Motto: "Liberty, Prosperity, Sensibility" | |
| No Map Available Yet | |
| Region | Lichentia |
|---|---|
| Capital | Wyndrock |
| Official Language(s) | English (primary), German (rarely) |
| Leader | President Maria C. Cordera |
| Population | 6.3 billion |
| Currency | The Hectarian Credit (Ç) |
| NS Sunset XML | |
Contents
Economy & Government
The Minarchy of Four Hectares is a massive, diverse nation, a champion of global capitalism and serves as a worldwide economic role model. Legislating from the capital city, Wyndrock, the democratic government assumes a primarily liberal stance in modern politics and the country and its citizens are working to achieve a high amount of civil, political and economic freedoms. It's economy is highly open and free-market, which allows the nation to consistently achieve high economic ratings, extremely low rates of unemployment (less than 3%) and a GDP per capita above Ç45,000/year. Its national animal is the hawk and its currency is the Hectarian Credit, symbolized by Ç. David Nolan was the country's principle founding father.
National History
The recorded history of Four Hectares began approx. 1800 years ago at the dawn of the Gerrish Empire which, at its peak (approx. 1400 years ago), grew to encompass the entire Lichentian continent where the modern nation is located, as well as several outlying, colonial territories in the region.
Following the collapse of the Gerrish Empire (approx. 1100 years ago), the entire continent descended into anarchy as warring factions fought to control land and precious natural resources. This remained the status quo for over 600 years.
About 550 years ago, two groups of British and German explorers arrived just weeks apart, each claiming the continent for their respective nations. After they systematically annihilated or enslaved the native population, they turned upon one another. The war which followed lasted nearly 15 years and ended with a British victory. The Treaty of Zur handed control of the continent to Britain.
Following the war, the British split their new territory into the three separate colonies of New Staffordshire, Piedmont and Pendleton, each with its own colonial government. This would remain the status quo for about another 125 years.
Around then, with the British rapidly foreseeing the end of their status as a world power, they first moved to cast off their expensive colonies. New Staffordshire, Peidmont and Pendleton, being three of the most distant, were the first of several to be cut loose. The abrupt pull out of the British might have signaled the beginning of a new period of anarchy if it weren't for the emergence of David Nolan, former governor of the New Staffordshire colony, who stepped forward with a plan to unite the three colonies into a signal, democratic nation. Thus the modern nation of Four Hectares was born.
People
The people of Four Hectares are hard-working, intelligent and display good common sense. They are patriotic, but not blindly so and they take their rights to protest and to criticize their government seriously. While wealth is often regarded as a measure of success, most Hectarians believe that it is better to be employed at a job you like than to force yourself to work purely 'for the money'. Because hard work is taken seriously, most Hectarians look down on those who are able to work, but refuse to do so and they disapprove of public welfare schemes, preferring instead to support private charities who help those individuals truly in need.
It is estimated that approx. 48% of Hectarians would consider themselves religious, but those who are tend to be sensible about it and extremists/fundamentalists are very rare. The vast majority of Hectarians would agree firmly with the statement "thou shalt keep thy religion to thyself" and are strongly in favor of keeping government and religion seperate.
The vast majority of all Hectarians are accepting of every race, nationality, culture and non-violent creed, provided they are loyal to the principles of democracy and follow the laws of the country.
Good education is important to nearly all Hectarian citizens and as such, it is the primary budget concern of the tiny government. Hectarian public schools and universities are some of The Serenade's best. Education is funded via the national sales tax and through a unique education lottery sponsored by the government, in which half of all ticket sales go towards funding the education budget.
Most Hectarians speak English as it is the official language of the country and the primary language taught in schools. There are a few German descendants living in or near the Haagelsteins who continue speak their native tongue. There are no surviving natives from the pre-colonial era, so any native Hectarian tongues are now forever lost to the vaults of time.
Laws & Government
The small Hectarian government concerns itself almost entirely with law & order, defence and education. It is structured as a representative democracy and bears some similarities to the government of the United States although there are several differences. A single-chamber National Congress of elected representatives from each voting district makes up the legislative body. Hectarians also elect a President/Vice President to a four-year term. The President serves as Commander in Chief of the country's armed forces and forms the executive branch. Finally, the High Court consists of five justices, appointed by the President and approved by the National Congress, who serve eight-year terms and form the judicial branch.
A free-market economy flourishes in Four Hectares, fueled by low tax rates and limited business regulations, which are only in place to ensure a fair minimum wage, reasonably clean working enviornments and to restrict child labor. The government is funded almost entirely via a 17% national sales tax, with inheritance and income taxes, along with bracketed tax schemes, having been dismissed long ago as archaic, socialist, restrictive and unfair.
A clear majority of Hectarians are socially liberal and this is reflected in the laws of the nation. Gambling, prostitution, abortion, concealed weapons and the possesion of small amounts of marijuana have all been legalized. This should not, however, be taken as an invitation to do entirely as one pleases. Serious crimes still carry serious penalties, with first-degree murder and rape both carrying mandatory life sentences. Parole and capital punishment have been abolished entirely - if you can't do the time, don't commit the crime.
Political Parties
- Libertarian Party of Four Hectares
- People's Capitalist Party of Four Hectares
- Social Reform Party of Four Hectares
- Other Hectarian Parties
Game History
And now, 4H spills his guts. Since he is currently (as of March 2007) on hiatus and may never return to the game, no details will be withheld from this comprehensive gameplay history. Please bare in mind that his memory is a bit fuzzy on details from 2+ years ago (the WWSETI age), but he will tell his history as honestly as he can remember it.
The creator of Four Hectares began with the nation Kotuladom, but Four Hectares quickly became his primary nation. Both were spun out of the digital aether sometime in late 2004, and languished in one-man regions until their creator invited one of his high school chums to join the game (since known as the nation Julio Trigman). Julio soon referred 4H to the science & technology-themed region WWSETI, which was one of the oldest regions in NS having been founded in 2003, where they quickly bonded with founder Hagge and became senior officials. CTR joined somewhere in there, and along with Hagge's friends Morpheus and Latagon (in his own region at the time), WWSETI always had four to five 'core' members for about a year.
RP in the early WWSETI years was fairly lively and leaned towards outer space, science and other Trekkie-ish stuff. Hagge spared no expense in setting up a regional portal to house the infamous 'Constitution of WWSETI' (a major point of strife later on), along with RP links, regional history, Hagge's pet projects (Folding/Seti@home), and other information for new members. This was WWSETI's Golden Age.
Except for this one little problem. You see, Hagge had made it expressly clear from the beginning that he hated Nazis and their factions on NS, and would never permit a Nazi or anyone with fascist political tendencies from residing in WWSETI. He said that his dad had survived time in a Nazi concentration camp during WWII and as such, he was forever opposed their ideologies (as everyone should be).
Unfortunately for Hagge, Julio Trigman was hiding a secret - he was in command of the nation 'Adolph Hilter' in Nazi Europe, served as their UN delegate and had quite a bit of sway in that region at the time. One week, while Hagge was away on Easter vacation and JT was bored, he managed to organize an NE 'invasion' of WWSETI for his own personal entertainment. The Nazi puppets invaded and spammed the RMB with their usual barrage of "Sieg Heil! 88" messages.
Upon Hagge's return, his response was swift and brutal. He kicked all of the invaders out, locked down the region with password protection and used a sort of 'founder's privilege' to conduct an investigation above the law. He discovered that NE had been the aggressor, but was unable to discern a connection between JT and the Nazis.
By April 2005 or so, things had cooled off again and I think Prez may have arrived on scene somewhere in there. It was during this time that I attempted to have some fun of my own and get JT's nation 'Adolph Hilter' kicked out of Nazi Europe. I took an IM conversation that we had completely out of context and handed it over to a couple of the top NE officials as 'proof' that he was a traitor. In the (highly edited) discussion, it appeared that JT had offered to show me top secret documents from Nazi Europe's archives and to give me the password to the ND High Council forum. He was quickly ejected and banned, but within 24 hours he managed to convince his superiors that the conversation was faked and then reported me to the moderators for revealing his private information (screen name and full name) without his permission. This lead to a major interrogation on the Jolt forums by ANA-leader Nolaerie (sp?), who accused me of being a DOS nation with many previous ties to the NS Nazi faction and a history of troublemaking. Eventually, JT convinced Nolaerie to leave me alone saying it was all just a joke, but not before 4H's continued existence was in question.
I'm sure I'm skipping several weeks of positive regional events here, so you'll have to forgive me when I say that I honestly don't remember what happened from about May until "The Event". "The Event" happened around July 2005, when Hagge decided to take another vacation. JT was feeling mischievous once more and decided to light a fire by starting another apparent Nazi invasion, this time using puppets of his own. By now, CTR had been elected Vice President of WWSETI and so naturally, he was in charge while Hagge was away. CTR had grown suspicious that there was a mole from within, attempting to topple the government. He responded to the invasion by enacting emergency measures until Hagge's return. Meanwhile, JT and I decided discovered that the 'official' copy of the Constitution of WWSETI had originally referred to the Vice President as the Secretary of State, but this change had never been reflected (despite a motion to change it having passed several weeks earlier). JT decided to play on this, claiming that CTR did not even have a position within the government to begin with and accused him of trying to initiate a hostile takeover of the region. JT moved to place CTR on trial, and as the Minister of Justice, I served as judge and jury.
CTR decided to play along and let his trial proceed, until he attempted to cite the vote which changed the Secretary of State's role to that of the Vice President's. Because I had moderator rights, I had the foresight to go back in time and delete that thread before CTR moved to cite it, but CTR (being an admin) could see that it had been deleted, and he immediately suspended the trial and removed all moderator rights until Hagge's return. This naturally led to JT and I making an even bigger stink over his alleged 'lack of authority' and attempts to take over the government.
Upon Hagge's return, he went ballistic, locked down the region, kicked out JT's "Nazi" puppets and immediately set about determining what the heck had happened. This time he was able to put two and two together, connected JT to the Nazis, figured out that I was in cahoots with him, and ejected us from the region. JT and I departed for the United Federation of Planets, another region in which JT had a position of significant power.
Coming Soon - Part II: The UFoP-WWSETI War
