Erephisian Technocracy
 | This article refers to a micronation or element of micronationalism which is defunct and no longer exists. You can help make the article reflect that or ask on the talk page for further information. |
Erephisian Technocracy | |
|---|---|
 Flag
 Coat of arms
| |
| Motto: Ever Upwards | |
| File:Manchester, UK | |
| Capital and largest city | Brio, 47 |
| Official languages | English |
| Demonym(s) | Erephisian |
| Government | Custom Technocracy |
• Curator | Billy Neil |
| Establishment | February 2002 |
| Population | |
• Census | 2 |
| Currency | GBP |
| Time zone | GMT |
Erephisian Technocracy (formerly known as the Technological Federation of Erephisia and Erephisia Oblast amongst other previous incarnations) was a micronation based mainly in the Greater Manchester area in the north-west of the United Kingdom. Erephisia was a leading nation in the field of media, being the home of a band and a broadcaster. The project has been in existence since 2002 and had undergone many incarnations before being established as Erephisian Technocracy on 1 June 2015 before its eventual dissolution at the hands of the foundation of the Blecc Empire.
Etymology
The name 'Erephisia' comes from an anagram of the word 'sphere', which was then corrupted to make it sound more directly like the name of a nation, akin to 'Erauqs' (the word 'square' reversed). In March 2010, when the work was being done to revive the nation of Erauqs from its longterm hiatus, the name "Erauqs" was originally going to be reused, however that was disagreed upon due to its difficulty to pronounce, and eventually Erephisia was picked as an alternative.
History
1996-2005
The first sign of micronational leaning from Erephisian founder Billy Neil was the establishment of a simulationist national project in 1996, Cactus Town. The city-state was mainly built out of LEGO, and lasted for a total of a month before it was physically destroyed and rebuilt.
Although originally the first incarnation of Erephisia was stated as The Republic of Orbis, its true roots stretch back to Billy Neil's first true micronation, Neil Island. The micronation, founded in February
2002, located in Charlestown, Manchester worked on a largely virtual scale and had a population of 5, with Neil as it's monarch. The micronation had lasted the longest period of any of Erephisia's incarnations until the reshuffle that occurred when Erephisia became a territory briefly in 2014, lasting from February 2002 to May 2005, over three years, including a complete territory and citizenship move.
One of the citizens of Neil Island was Thomas Bainbridge, future president of Orbis, president of Democratic Republic of Longarnia and current monarch of Hrafnarfjall, who assisted in the running of Neil Island during its latter existence in Bowker Vale, Manchester, opening a coke/clay mine, an archeological society and a film production company, though all of these projects had largely failed to have any tangible consistent output.
Neil Island also went through several names and stages of growth, being alternately named The MD, Jimstein and, interestingly, Erauqs. Similarly its capital was named Mannaco, a name used for Erephisia's capital city earlier on in its existence.
2005-2008
After Neil Island was completely dissolved, after Neil and Bainbridge's exit from primary school, Erephisia began a new existence as the Republic of Orbis on 7 June 2005 with the eleven-year-old Thomas Bainbridge as its president and his friend Billy Neil as its Prime Minister. However, due to a lack of interest, Neil seceded two days later and Orbis collapsed soon afterwards on 15 June of the same year, being the shortest lasting of any of Erephisia's incarnations. One of the inspirations for Orbis' creation was the then upcoming How To Start Your Own Country by Danny Wallace.
Bainbridge attempted to reform Orbis in several different guises, but failed to do so until his late secondary school years, at which point he began working to form a micronation that would eventually become Longarnia.
On 18 August 2008, Neil devised and created the Kingdom of Erauqs (Erauqs being an anagram of square) with himself as Monarch. Erauqs met the same fate as Orbis, collapsing on 5 October. Erauqs had the greatest advancement to time ratio of any of Neil's micronations, going as far as opening a bank and a casino, the casino comprising of a Black Jack table, single novelty miniature slot machine and roulette table. Erauqs was located in the space that is was occupied by the Federal Erephisian capital region of Sedna, although Erauqs was far smaller than Sedna. Erauqs was a kingdom in name, but de facto, it was a political and governmental system more closely related anarchy.
2010-2015
On 2 March 2010, Neil created Erephisia as a what was outwardly stated as a coalition of the micronations of Sedna, Kraft, Vox, Jean and Quarto, but this fact was largely overstated to give the nation a bit more personality, as none of these subnations had existed prior to Erephisia's inception. Erephisia was a relatively small micronation, only being based in different houses and small pockets of "claimed land" in the Greater Manchester area, as well as other points in the UK. Erephisia celebrated its independence day on June the 8th and underwent reforms on 2 October. Erephisia switched from a federal monarchy to a federal republic, with Billy Neil abandoning the title 'Doctor' for 'President'. It was one of Neil's hope to expand the nation, possibly recruiting citizens from college and universities. Erephisia did expand, both with population and territory, after merging with Kingdom of Smegola, Smegola became a Region of Erephisia still under control of its former monarch, Ryan Thomson. Smeloga was later dissolved.
After its first anniversary, Erephisia began to grow rapidly, with the region of Quarto acquiring up to 20 citizens. The increased internal activity in Erephisia lead to the growth of both a functioning Erephisian government and an increased operating culture. The count of regions had jumped from 5 to 15 in this period, with some of the smaller pockets of land dotted around the uk being officially codified as individual regions.
Erephisia has continued to grow in size and popularity, and had successfully completed an election. The elected president, Sebastian Linden, remained in the position for a month, resigning in April 2012 with Billy Neil regaining his position as president and outsourced citizen, Kossian founder Lucas Campos, taking place as Acting Vice President. Linden remained in Erephisia as advisor to the presidium. After this time the Erephisian government decided to remove a large portion of unneeded territory (comprising about 10 of Erephisia's former 15 regions) from Erephisia, as well as the Virtual Erephisian regions which had been established in games such as Minecraft and The Sims 2. Erephisia successfully performed Elections in September/October 2012, ending with Kuri Kabanov being voted in as Sixth President of Erephisia. Erephisia also adopted constitutional amendments during this time.
After a lengthy stretch of inactivity, the Technological Federation of Erephisia was dissolved and parts of its former territory were claimed by Gishabrun SAR, Renasia, on 28 November 2014, under the name "Erephisia Oblast", with Billy Neil as its first and only Ambassador. This post was de jure dissolved when the KleinZav Board of Directors (Gishabrun SAR's legislature) voted to suspend the constitution indefinitely and implement an absolute monarchical regime under the Knyaz of Gishabrun. During this time, Neil, the sole remaining continually active member of Erephisia, was scared of the more conservative and intolerant direction the MicroWiki community, both offsite and off, and thus decided to officially depart from public communication.
When a referendum on the dissolution of the Free State of Renasia was passed and the state formally dissolved on 5 May 2015 (as a result of a long hiatus), Gishabrun legally seceded, rescinded its land claims (including Erephisia Oblast) as well as the citizenships of everyone not belonging to the Royal Family.
Neil re-established the Erephisian entity as the "Erephisian Technocracy" in June 2015, in an attempt to return to the MicroWiki community. Some of the changes that occurred with this regeneration of Erephisia include a renunciation of all territories besides Sedna, which was thus renamed 47, renunciation of the Erephisian Graff in favour of the Great British Pound (GBP), and a reset of the citizens roster, with only founder Billy Neil and long time citizen Alex Bennett remaining.
2015-2016
During this time, Neil had grown incredibly disenfranchised with the micronational community, and all work on Erephisia had effectively ceased. The nation was finally and completely dissolved with the foundation of the Blecc Empire in 2017, the documents regarding Blecc's foundation specifically mentioning that Erephisia would no longer exist upon the signing of the documentation.
2017-Present
The Blecc Empire existed quietly as a smaller creators community from 2017 until 2020, officially changing its name from the "Blecc Empire" to simply "Blecc" in official wording, and had briefly expanded to including former micronationalist Kuri Kabanov, as well as an adult art community under the name The 4B Club, which had a membership of nearly 40 people but was later disbanded. Blecc was a smaller community of 10+ members during this time, including and was largely managed by Billy Neil and Alex Bennett, but after a brief period of inactivity, a major argument between Neil and Bennett at the beginning of 2020 led to the Blecc community being disbanded.
11 months after this in December 2020, and motivated by Thomas of Hrafnarfjall, Billy Neil returned to the MicroWiki community, with plans to revive the old Neroli Laboratories company into a new micronational entity using the Blecc name, Blecc Fabrications.
Previous Incarnations of Erephisia
Cactus Town
Cactus Town is a former simulationist micronation based in the Southampton home of Billy Neil. It was created on Neil's 2nd birthday and was built, nearly entirely, out of LEGO. Primarily based on the Cowboy culture, Cactus Town lasted for little more the 2 weeks, before it was dismantled and turned into something else. Records of Cactus Town's existence where only rediscovered by the Erephisian in August 2011. It is up to internal debate as to whether Cactus Town constitutes a micronation due to its freefrom and simulationist nature. If it is considered a micronation, then Erephisia's age could in theory be stated as 16 years (as of 2012), but officially Erephisia is stated as being 10 years old.
Neil Island
Neil Island was a semi simulationist micronation founded in 2002 and is now considered the first form of the Technological Federation of Erephisia. It was founded by Billy Neil and had 20+ citizens. It lasted from 2002 to 2005, whereupon it was directly succeeded by the Republic of Orbis. Neil Island existed primarily in the neary field and sports grounds of Charlsetwon Primary School, with all of the nations citizen being students of said schoo. There was no direct governmential system, and Neil Island was vaguely defined and quite non-serious.
Republic of Orbis
The Republic of Orbis is an inactive micronation based in Manchester, UK. Orbis is the original micronational form of both the Technological Federation of Erephisia and Democratic Republic of Longarnia. The Republic of Orbis was founded on the 7th of June 2005 with Thomas Bainbridge as president and Billy Neil as prime minister. The two founded the micronation after extensivley reading about the micronations The Kingdom of Lovely and Sealand. The micronation consisted only of Bainbridge and Neil and the governmental structure consisted of Bainbridge making most of the central dsicions and Neil agreeing or disagreeing with these. The micronation lasted for a very limited period of time as Neil seceded from the nation as he thought it was poorly run and weak. Bainbridge attempted to run the nation for a short period of time afterwards but the nation failed soon after.
Kingdom of Erauqs
The Kingdom of Erauqs is a defunct micronation based in Manchester, UK. It was a precursor of the micronation the Technological Federation of Erephisia. Its only citizen was its Monarch Billy Neil. The name of Erauqs is the word 'Square' backwards, but with a pronunciation inflection so the name is pronounced 'Air-ask'. According to Neil he was originally going to call the nation 'New Orbis' but he decided that the name was stupid an changed it. The Kindom of Erauqs was founded 3 years 2 months after the dissolution of The Republic of Orbis.
Its founder Billy Neil based the new micronation on Orbis but with a few differences, with Erauqs being a Kindom and based mainly in Neil's house in oppose to Orbis (and now Democratic Republic of Longarnia) President Thomas Bainbridge's house. Bainbridge had no involment in Erauqs. The nation was founded in mid-August 2008 in Neil's Bedroom and Living room (Mannaco and the capital city Raster respectively).
The micronation thrived in its first two months of existence however, due to lack of external and personal interest, the nation dissolved on the 5th of October 2008. Erauqs was the first micronation founded by Billy Neil to have its own currency, namely the Ing. The Ing came in 1 Ing, 5 Ing, 10 Ing and 100 Ing plastic chips/coins. The value of the Ing was pegged to the GBP (£). Billy Neil nominally resurrected the Kingdom on 24 April 2012, appointing Declan I, II & V the titular King of Erauqs with the regnal name of William II. Erauqs now exists near the Erephisian city of Greenline.
Geography
Erephisia is fairly hilly and with some tree coverage. At the time of its dissolution, Erephisia consisted only the location of a single region, named 47, with only one settlement within, the capital city Brio.
Culture
The National Flag
|
|
| Use | National flag   |
|---|---|
| Proportion | 2:3 |
| Adopted | June 2010 |
| Design | Vertical tricolour |
| Designed by | Billy Neil |
The Flag of Erephisia is the national flag used to represent the government, people and culture of Erephisia. The flag is conformed by three vertical equal lines of yellow, grey and black. The flag was inspired the founding father's favourite colours.
| Scheme | Yellow | Grey | Black |
|---|---|---|---|
| RGB | 100-100-0 | 50-50-50 | 0-0-0 |
| Hex | #FFFF00 | #808080 | #000000 |
The Coat of Arms
The old Erephisian coat of arms is composed of the following sections:
1. The Motto: Erephisians national motto, Devise, Invent, Design, Create, is based on Erephisia's scientific nature
2. The Shield: The shield is composed of Erephisia's nation colours (Yellow, Grey and Black)
3.The Tome of Words: National artifact of Erephisia
4. Gear Ttrain and PCP: Based on Erephisia's scientific nature
5. Villa Volta cross-section: Based on the national favourite theme park ride
The new draft of the coat of arms design was completed by Tarek Kârjasary, and a final design was created by Alexander Reinhardt. Reinhardt's design was put to use thereafter until the regeneration of Erephisia where a new Coat of Arms was designed.
The National Anthem
Orbis
Orbis' first national anthem, decided and recognized (only) by Billy Neil, was Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which lasted for a grand total of 5 minutes when it was replaced by J.S.Bach's Toccata and Fugue in Minor D, and then Crispin Merrell's The Hex. However, as the micronation lasted for such a short period of time, no official anthem was put in place. It is worth noting that The Democratic Republic of Longarnia considerind using The Hex as it's national anthem.
Erauqs
The first official anthem of the Kingdom of Erauqs was Genesis' The Brazilian and then Howard Goodall's Red Dwarf. Again however, the micronation didn't last long enough to cement a national anthem in place.
Erephisia
Until it's declaration of independence, Erephisia's national anthem floated between Rhytmos' Song of the Elders and Ruud Bos' Villa Volta. When independence was reached however, Villa Volta became the official national anthem of Erephisia. Erephisia's national anthem is Villa Volta by Ruud Bos. The anthem comes from the afformentioned theme park ride, which is considered an engineering feat and thus of great interest and importance to the nation.