Glastieve
Holy Glastieven Commonwealth | |
|---|---|
 Flag
 Coat of arms
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| Motto: Glory to the Independent | |
| Anthem: "Our Nation Built on Friendship" | |
| Location | South-west England |
| Official languages | |
| Religion | Christianity Recognised minority: Bibblism (communism–satanism–feminism) |
| Demonym(s) | Glastieven Glastievan |
| Government | Directorial republic |
• High Council | Glastievens δ, E, and K |
• High Court | Glastievens T and ζ |
• Keeper | Glastieven T (Aestival Term) |
| Establishment | 23 February 2017 |
| Population | |
• Census | 15 |
| Currency | Luach |
| Time zone | UTC+0 (GMT) |
Glastieve (pronounced /glæstiː'eɪveɪ/, glast-ee-AY-vay; Evonian: Drédrá, pronounced /'drɛdræ/, DRED-ra; Latin: Dredria or Collis Gramineus; Duckish: Makmak) is a nation and friendship group of nine individuals on the island of Great Britain, organised under a micronational government, the Holy Glastieven Commonwealth. There are nine Glastievens, identified in public as Glastieven C, Glastieven E, Glastieven K, Glastieven R, Glastieven T, Glastieven δ (otherwise known as Saxber Blackwood), Glastieven ζ, Glastieven π, and Glastieven Σ. Some former members were important to the group before their departure and are seen within Glastieve as historical figures, particularly Glastievens N, U, X and Z. Although Glastievens are scattered across Great Britain, a group of fields in south-west England with no permanent dwelling places serves as a cultural focal point and a gathering place for in-person meetups, and this sacred motherland is claimed by the Holy Commonwealth as its sovereign territory.
The Holy Commonwealth is governed by an executive and legislative High Council and a judicial High Court, together with a Keeper of the White Cloth, who is randomly selected eight times a year to serve a short term as ceremonial leader and initiate laws and projects. By ancient tradition, which remembers a time before the keepership was established, Glastieve is described as a directorial republic, and the High Council remains its collective head of state.
Glastieven histories begin in the early 2010s with the social history of the group. The first Glastieven state was established on 23 February 2017, the anniversary of which is celebrated as 'Star Day'. The First Republic fell in November 2017 and was replaced by a more ambitious and sophisticated but lethargic and forced successor, the Second Republic (January 2018 – February 2019). Glastieve's national day, Liger Day, marks the anniversary of a Second Republic-era protest by Glastievens against their school's strict discipline policies. The modern polity was established in October 2019, although the state and most of its civic institutions were dormant from March 2020 until a revival in July 2022. Three periods have been widely described as the golden age of Glastieven history: November 2015 – July 2016; June 2017; and October – November 2019.
Etymology
The English word Glastieve was constructed in February 2017 from the Irish place-name elements glas (/glæs/) and tieve (/tiːv/). In the Glastieven context, it was decided that tieve would be pronounced /ti:eve/ (tee-ay-vay). Initially, there was no firm consensus on which syllable ought to be stressed and the now non-standard [glæsˈtiːəveɪ] (glast-EE-uhvay) saw some usage until at least the latter half of 2018. The use of Celtic place-name elements was chosen as an homage to the preceding Republic of Skovaji and the decision to invent an improvised Mediterranean-sounding pronunciation followed E's short-lived Republic of Myré.
Tieve is an Anglicisation of the Irish word taobh. Glastieven records from early 2017 claimed that glas taobh was Irish for grassy hillside; no source was cited for this claim. This traditional etymology gave rise to "Grassy Hillside" as an occasional poetic reference to the country—e.g. the national chatroom for much of 2018 was the Grassy Hillside Club—and more recently, to the usage of "the Glastieve" in mythological writing to refer to the literal grassy hillside upon which the First People are supposed to have been born. However, research in 2019 established that the true meaning of glas was green and that taobh meant side or flank, and it noted that the traditional Glastieven etymology was given in the table listing place name elements on the in February 2017 revision of the Wikipedia page "Place names in Ireland", locating the likely source of the error.
Glastieve also has a name in each of its three non-English official languages: Latin, the conlang of Evonian, and the ad hoc "conlang" of Duckish. The Evonian name for Glastieve is Drédrá, and the usual Latin name borrows this as Dredria. However, the official Latin name of the state is Res Publica Sancta Collis Gramineus, meaning "Holy Republic [or Commonwealth] of the Grassy Hillside". In Duckish, Glastieve is Makmak and the name of the state is Guá Quaah Makmak; these are some of the few words that remain consistent between Duckish "translations".
History
Modern-day Glastieve is a union of two historical lineages: that of C, K and ζ's group, and that of E, N, R, T, U and δ's group. π and Σ joined in 2022 after these two halves had merged (and N and U had quit). Each group emerged between 2015 and 2016 and co-founded the First Republic of Glastieve on 23 February 2017. However, the groups separated in April 2017, leaving the micronation in the hands of E, N, R, T, U and δ. Meanwhile, C, K and ζ's group disintegrated and was absorbed into a larger social milieu, where the three often saw one another but were associated with different sub-groups.
The First Republic thrived until the autumn, albeit with regular political controversies, until it became bogged down in inactivity and collapsed in November after δ encouraged U to lead a coup d'etat against E and N. It was succeeded by the more ambitious and less successful Second Republic from January 2018 to February 2019. From the winter of 2017-18, T and δ promoted a theory of history and an agenda for government that represented the friendship group as a small-scale nation with its own culture. The "New Secessionism" they devised presented the Republic of Glastieve as the government of this small-scale nation and held that the purpose of a micronation was to provide services that would be practically useful for the group (e.g. organising meetups) and safeguard its culture and traditions. δ's girlfriend X joined the group in November 2018 during a failed attempt to establish a federal empire across multiple friendship groups, joining T, δ, and E as a fourth keen participant in the government. N left shortly thereafter due to conflict with δ.
Despite a period of political interregnum in 2019, when Glastieve was slated to be absorbed into the Envardian Republic—a second attempt to export New Secessionism to other groups—a Glastieven identity persisted. K joined the group in the spring of 2019. She contributed to a "Glastieven Revival" that September which saw the group establish ties with the Territory and form the Holy Glastieven Commonwealth in October 2019, with K now a fifth active participant in the government. The first Holy Commonwealth era from October 2019 to March 2020 saw C, K and ζ reunite as a group and begin to involve themselves with Glastieve as ζ accepted citizenship and their social circle developed an association with a trio of δ, E and K, with T and a Glastieven η also in the frame. X and U strengthened their individual friendship as R and U drifted away from this new circle. The High Council voted to put the Holy Commonwealth into what it called "deliberate abeyance" in March 2020 and decided not to declare that C, K and ζ's group had merged into Glastieve in the same way as E, R, T, U and δ's had done. δ broke up with X at around the same time and she and U left the group.
The modern age of Glastieven history began in May 2021 at the Great Meetup of the Outcasts Disorganised, a campfire in the Territory where the two groups of C, K and ζ, and K, E, R, T and δ, moved into a new shared Discord server together. The citizens left their home town for several different universities in the autumn of 2021. By the end of 2022, K, T and δ all agreed that the implicit dividing line between the two halves of the Discord group had melted away. Meanwhile, E's girlfriend π and δ's queerplatonic partner Σ had started to associate with the group. The government institutions of the Holy Commonwealth were revived in July 2022 and π and Σ were made citizens after the case of In re Glastieven X established that the High Council's declaration in March 2020 could be overriden by the modern group without X's consent, even though she had never formally resigned from the council. The national newspaper, The Glastieven, and the mythology were also revived; and new institutions were established, including a quarterly academic journal, Transactions of the Hallowhouse. As of April 2023, the state, The Glastieven, the mythology, and the Hallowhouse all remain active and draw engagement from every citizen other than R and sometimes π.
Emergence of Glastieve
Glastieven mythology teaches that the nation was established by the strategic intervention on Earth of an interstellar human civilisation that first took to the stars in around 3000 BC. Speculation about Glastieven origins has converged on two points of consensus: Glastieve is charged with being rebellious and creative to resist attempts by spirits of order called the Solas to keep the Earth boring and drab, and Glastieven T is an immortal being, almost certainly a manifestation of a figure known as the Gawyn. T themselves has supported this speculation in an account produced with E and δ, arguing that a species of socialist scientists descended from humans, the Evon, gave δ a commission as the "fisher of kings" to bring together a group on the Earth that could resist the Solas' attempts to suppress creativity. K has argued along different lines, arguing that Glastieve is the product of a "Glastievan spirit" which has made itself known repeatedly throughout history, giving the examples of the Duke of Buckingham and the True Levellers.
In T, E and δ's account (which is deliberately equivocal about the origins of C, K and ζ's group), the fisher of kings (δ) first met with the "Children of the P Bus" (a name for C and K) and "U the Weebwitch". Two other human-descended species used a network of towers stationed around the Glastievens' home town to misrepresent themselves as gods. These early connections fractured, mirroring events in outer space between the mythology's characters, but undeterred, the fisher of kings initiated their project again by joining with "Sir R of ---", where the censored word is a conservative London commuter town felt to be evocative of his vibe. The gathering of Glastieve continued when the fisher of kings reunited with the Weebwitch, and E―identified as the mythological character Raven Olympia―joined them to show them how to divine the truth about events in outer space using RPs, creating a roleplaying circle called Acteriendia. Together, Acteriendia and Sir R joined with the Children of the P Bus to establish a republic, but controversy once again tore them apart, and the Gawyn (T) was forced to intervene to protect the republic and ensure its continued viability against the Solas.
This mythological narrative about the origins of Glastieve approximately corresponds with the historiographical one. K has argued forcefully that historians should start the timeline as far back as primary school, as C and K were friends with each other and with δ, and δ, K and U created a "club" together, Bakon Kids. Otherwise, historians agree that an important early precursor to the emergence of E, N, R, T, U and δ's group was E, R and δ becoming friends at their school's Green Team in September 2014, and that the direct chain of causes began when a group of E, U and δ known as "Acteriendia" started roleplaying together in late 2015.
Glastieve's micronational predecessors were δ's Republic of Skovaji and N's Democratic Republic of Howe, both established in October 2014. These micronations were at the centre of the Acteriendian model countries, an umbrella term for three waves of smaller model countries that were established in imitation of Skovaji and the DRoH. The first wave was at Trains Club, a group run by δ and N which has aroused occasional interest from Glastieven historians but has been evaluated as peripheral to Glastieve's social development. The second wave was significant for involving E, who established the Kingdom of Trebor, and the third wave in June 2016 was explicitly tied to the proto-Glastieven "Chill Group" of E, R, N and δ, with E establishing the Republic of Myré. N, E and R subsequently became ministers in Seanad derinvart hSkovagee in July 2016 and Skovaji was briefly transformed into a group micronation.
Shortly thereafter, the social events leading up to the Glastieven declaration of independence began in earnest when Acteriendia (E, U and δ)—which recent historiography suggests R and N saw as the centre of their own social world, which was organised as the Chill Group—started to see itself as existing within a social world that had C, K and ζ at the centre. Specifically, "the group" in this era came to mean C, K, ζ, E and U, even when E was talking to δ. A threefold motive emerged for δ to create a more equitable embodiment of "the group" (or a new social centre): N expressed his confusion and dismay to them about E's confusing generic usage of the phrase; K drafted them in to maneuver U out of the group, which δ considered Machiavellian and immoral; and they broke up with their girlfriend, which significantly weakened their out-of-school social group and made them far more invested in the situation at school. Recruiting N and E, δ suggested a new group micronation, modelled on Skovaji in 2016. The republic was intended as a micronational hobby project whose aims were to win diplomatic influence and be as developed as possible: although δ's motives for creating the club were socially utilitarian, 'in-universe' endorsement and pursuit of these effects of the republic did not emerge until New Secessionism in 2018. N and E were enthusiastic and U, R, C and K joined the project as founding members.
First Republic of Glastieve (February–November 2017)
The history of the original Republic of Glastieve that declared independence on 23 February 2017 and fell in November of that year is customarily divided into six periods: the Foundation Period, the Renaissance Period, the Partisan Period, the Holiday Period, the Reformation Period, and Project Zeta.
Politics and government
The Holy Commonwealth is governed by an executive and legislative High Council and a judicial High Court, together with a Keeper of the White Cloth, who is randomly selected eight times a year to serve a short term as ceremonial leader and initiate laws and projects.
The Territory
The sovereign territory of the Holy Glastieven Commonwealth is comprised of three fields on the south-facing flank of a hill on the edge of a town in south-west England. The southernmost of these fields—which is the largest of the three and houses the majority of places of interest—comprises the northernmost portion of an English common called Mincinglake Valley Park. The area is most commonly referred to in Glastieve as "The Territory". It is also metonymically referred to as "Mincinglake", or less frequently as "Glastieve".
Administrative geography
The Territory is administered as three "fields": New Field, the Field of Starlight Green, and the Field of the Sex Bench. The latter is subdivided into three "counties": County Forest, County Ridge, and County Sexhill.
Historically, these divisions were established as part of a one-tier system which split the Territory into counties based on ancient field boundaries from centuries before the declaration of independence. The modern system had emerged through custom and practice by 2022 and was formally set out in 2023.
Glastieve and the March
Just outside the Territory to the south is a further open field, the south-western portion of which is known to Glastievens as Bilbo National Park; the north-eastern portion as Ardfrack. The name 'national park' does not denote any actual legal protection or framework in the commonwealth. This region shares a rugged character with the Territory proper; includes sites of importance to the mythology, particularly the Fairy Tree; and has been surveyed by Glastievens in detail, leading T to describe it as Glastieve's "future territory". Further away still, somewhat less rugged green space in the vicinity also has significance to Glastievens. A nature reserve to the south of Bilbo National Park is often walked through on the way to the Territory and has been surveyed and given Glastieven toponyms, and a nearby park, accessed via a winding path, is a frequent alternative destination on Night Walks. Taken together, either the Territory, Bilbo National Park and Ardfrack, or sometimes the whole of this wider region, is known as "Glastieve and the March".
Role of the Territory
The Territory is not the home of the Glastieven nation or the practical physical manifestation of the Glastieven state. It is only in relation to a handful of ceremonial actions, such as litter-picks and geographical surveys, that the international border between Glastieve and the UK represents the limit of the state's de facto jurisdiction. Rather like a cyber-micronation, most Glastieven activity takes place outside of the Territory, and the state largely operates on an aterritorial basis. The Murus—Glastieve's criminal court—has criminal and civil jurisdiction over all interactions between Glastievens regardless of their location and it almost invariably hears cases in person outside of the Territory. A wide variety of locations outside of the Territory, including customary in-person meeting places for the Murus and the High Council, have an important cultural meaning for the nation. Glastieven in-person meetups have been organised in various British cities.
However, the Territory is far from a box-ticking de jure claim, and it looms large in the Glastieven imagination. It is frequently mentioned at weekly PowerPoint nights and is invested with a special importance by Glastieven mythology and folklore. Trips to Mincinglake have been labelled "pilgrimages". Some Glastieven rites, such as the consortship ritual (the equivalent of a wedding ceremony), are intended to be performed on the Territory's sacred ground.
Glastievens T and δ describe Glastieve as a "diasporic nation" with the territory as its "motherland". Moreover, both Glastieven T and Glastieven Σ has each separately compared the cultural place of the Territory to the Land of Israel in Judaism.
Foreign relations
Glastieve has not maintained foreign relations with other states since March 2020.
From its foundation in 2017 until the 2020 – 2022 period of political interregnum, Glastieve identified itself as part of the MicroWiki sector, although enthusiasm for this within the nation waned after the New Community controversy in October 2017 and was virtually non-existent after March 2018. Saxber Blackwood, known in 2017 as "Mark Kavanah" and in 2018 as "Will Campbell", was the nation's primary ambassador to the community in 2017 and its exclusive point of contact thereafter. They are not in a position to resume this role: they were "ostracized" in 2021 after a widespread hostile reaction to a joke/troll that consisted of starting arguments with an obnoxiously woke persona called Beti de Quadrie, and in a 2022 conversation, two experienced micronationalists expressed dismay at the prospect of their return.
Economy
Culture
Mythology
See also
Notes and references
Notes
Further reading
- Blackwood, Saxber. Introduction to New Secessionism. Starlight Green: Glastieven University Press, December 2019.
- Blackwood, Saxber. The Glastieven Model. Self-published, November 2020.