Volticade

This is the official thread for my project, Volticade.
The Volticade project is an effort to create a successful empire, centred around a nobility headed by a prince; me.
The plan for the project is as follows:

Phase 1:


The first phase of the project will be to found a town. It will be registered as VolticadeCity, and entitled the Duchy of the City of Volticade. The City will be headed by a Duke, Eekelmo, because he has entirely funded my Mayorship. He will ultimately be responsible to me as Prince.
The Duchy of the City of Volticade will be divided into two sections, the Walled City of Volticade, which will make up the majority of VolticadeCity, and Volticade Town, which will be the rest of VolticadeCity outside of the Walled City.
Here is a construction map of VolticadeCity.

The idea of the city is based on the Walled City in Londonderry, near where I live. I took the idea of a wall, the four main thoroughfares, and the 'diamond' in the middle from Derry, with the major difference being the presence of a structure in the middle of the square. The structure in question is the Supreme Palace of Volticade, in the centre of Crown Square. It is the headquarters of the Volticadian nobility and government, my residence, the location of the main public farms of Volticade, and the planned spawn point after warping to the city. All civil constructions share the same architecture; aesthetically enhanced cobblestone.

There are 6 streets, 6 avenues and 4 thoroughfares which border every plot in the Walled City. All are individually named. The four thoroughfares are the main roads, and are named after the direction they head from the Supreme Palace.
The 6 streets are horizontally heading roads, and are named Stormont Street, Artigarvan Street, Brussels Street, London Street, Derry Street, and Andrew Street, listed from north to south.
The 6 avenues are Mohammed Avenue, Tokyo Avenue, Ford Avenue, Office Avenue, Normandy Avenue, and Volt Avenue, listed from west to east. Roads will not be destroyed to allow room for larger constructions. Each plot will be 25 metres in length, and will be square, with the exception of plots bordering the walls, and plots in Crown Square.

Atop the wall, there is a monorail around the city, allowing for easy transit. There will be ten towers, named Lincoln Tower, Thatcher Tower, Khan Tower, Washington Tower, Lenin Tower, Mandela Tower, Merkel Tower, Gates Tower, Bernanke Tower, and Aristotle Tower, listed from north to south (where two towers have an identical lattitude, the westernmost one is the next in the list.) Every street and avenue leads directly up the wall; the thoroughfares do not, they lead to each gate.

Following the completion of the walls and the Supreme Palace, a coronation ceremony will take place, once I have completed the Volticadian Coat of Arms, to crown me as Prince of Volticade, grant certain miscellaneous titles through Sovereign Orders (such as Eekelmo's titles of Earl of Tokyo and Duke of Volticade), and to officially establish the government of Volticade. The government will include a bank, a military command for a Volticadian Army, a printing press responsible for the publication of a regular newspaper, a registry office allowing the numerous minecraft weddings (which there are plenty of) to be recognised by the Crown, a stock exchange, a postal service, and more, all in the Palace. As the roads running through the city are completed, plots will be opened up for sale, and when enough funds have been acquired, Phase 2 of the project will begin.

Phase 2:

Phase 2 of the project will concern the claiming and construction of 8 more towns directly surrounding VolticadeCity, to create a wider Grand Duchy of Volticade, a 3x3 block of towns. I will most likely personally assert dukedom of each borough surrounding Volticade, and grand dukedom of the entire grand duchy, although I may auction off the rights to the Duke positions attached to each of the 8 peripheral boroughs. Being a Prince, a Grand Duke, a Duke, or a Baron gives you shareholder rights of the Volticadian Crown; 33% of Crown revenue goes to the Prince, 33% goes to the grand dukedom, with each Grand Duke receiving an equal share of the money, and 33% goes to the dukedom and the baronage, with revenues being divided proportional to the number of towns owned (dukes and barons will be required to make sure their town is contributing to the Empire well, and may have their position revoked and directly overseen by a higher authority).

At the same time of the expansion of the central Volticadian city, expansion further afield will also be considered, making use of a section of the nobility known as the baronage. Mayors and Presidents across ECC will be offered, in exchange for their land and loyalty, a share of Crown revenue, and the title of Baron.
There will also be other ranks of the nobility offered, such as the title of General, offered to those who pay a regular tribute in return for a military unit for use in civil engineering, mining, farming, projects or Nether expedition, the title of Knight, offered to those who offer a military unit in exchange for a monetary fee, the title of Earl, offered to those who pay a tribute solely for the title, and the title of Lord, offered to those who rent land from a duke.

Following the completion of the Grand Duchy of Volticade, Phase 3 will begin.

Phase 3:
Expansion of the Volticadian Empire will continue, through expansion of the nobility, expansion of our territorial influence, and expansion of our assets. More grand dukes will be appointed, to construct further grand duchies surrounding the original Grand Duchy of Volticade.

As well as continuing these activities as before, we will establish ourselves on my previous Minecraft server. Following the establishment on another Minecraft server, I may crown myself as a King, and turn Volticade into a Kingdom, of two principalities, the Principality of Volticade, on ECC, and a new principality on this new server. I have a few scattered communities there which could be united as a grand duchy. From there, more and more Minecraft servers could be taken, and from there, the sky is the limit.

A TL;DR of the plan is expand as much as is goddamned possible.

What am I going to need to carry out this plan?
Well, as I type this, I am awaiting the approval of my Mayor application.
Once I get it, I'm going to need:
- Money. I am willing to bestow titles and priveleges, including shareholder rights, as outlined above upon anyone who provides a monetary contribution to the Volticade project.
- Labour, to get the other stuff in this list.
- Cobblestone, which is a key aspect of Volticadian architecture. No other kind of stone, not smooth stone, not bricks, but cobblestone, mossy cobblestone, cobblestone walls, and cobblestone slabs.
- Iron Gates, Netherrack, and fire placements, to create caged Netherrack torches, the main kind of lighting I want in the city.
- Water and lava placements, to create nice looking gargoyles on the palace and walls.
- Beacons, for each of the ten towers.
- Emerald, Gold, Lapis and Redstone blocks, for the four pillars at each corner of the Supreme Palace.
- Wood planks, to create patchy-looking fortifications on the wall.
That's about it, I believe. Any and all help is appreciated.

Credits:
- Eekelmo, for a total of $95,000 donated towards Volticade, a teleport donation perk he bought for me, and ongoing assistance on the project. He will attain the titles of Duke of Volticade and Earl of Tokyo. <3
- 7am, for that 5k donation responsible for making me a Resident
- Jason, for donations throughout my time as a Builder, and the crucial job as a co-mayor at Newsilver
- SurvivalBro, for a few donations during my time as a Builder.

If I've missed anyone, let me know!
Thank you for reading, and I hope you may work to help me!

 

That enthusiasm will be put to good use

Being an assburger does things to your attention-to-detail and ideas

Well, not all of the ranks need to be filled for the empire to function. For example, I will probably also be the Duke of each of the 8 towns surrounding VolticadeCity, as well as the Grand Duke of Volticade, and if I am to kick out anyone from their position as a duke/lord/grand duke because they're underperforming, I'll assert the title they previously held. We don't need to fill all these titles any more than we need an individual owner for every township in the empire, people can hold more than one position.

Also, as for a plot in Crown Square, there's going to be low supply, and high demand. All I can tell you is that the price is going to be high

Lolwut? 'Too much space on one side of the paper'? Just ignore it. And 'block paper'? You have a ruler, draw out a 20cmx20cm square and measure everything you need from the corners. No excuses, all you lack is determination

 

The Crown will try not to possess anything other than the walls, the roads and the Palace. If we give every noble their own house, that's taking up valuable space which could be sold to someone.

 

Class conflict will not be a concern, all nobles will be loyal to their superiors in the nobility and the Prince. Living in the capital is not a divine right by any means, but a privilege.

 

As a Lord, you will likely be directly responsible to a Grand Duke or perhaps an officer outside of the nobility who oversees townships outside of the main Volticade conurbation. You will be outranked by all Dukes, Grand Dukes, and the Prince.

Oh, by the way, I did make a slight change to the titles, Lords are now people who rent land, the people who contribute their land in exchange for a cut of the revenue are now called Barons.

 

The revenue is divided by noble rank. The Prince get 33%, the Grand Dukes get 33%, and the Dukes/Barons get 33%. The money going to the grand dukes will be divided on the basis of how many Grand Duchies they have (so it will be fairly equal, as most will only have 1 grand duchy) and the money going to dukes and barons will be divided on the basis of how many duchies/townships they oversee.

So, if there is one Prince who is also a Duke of eight townships and a Grand Duke, 3 Grand Dukes, each with one Grand Duchy, 3 Dukes, each with a Duchy (we shall assume for the purpose of simplicity that the Grand Duchies each only contain one Duchy, even though that would not be the case in reality) and 3 Barons each with one township, and the Principality made $100,000 in revenue, then the Prince would get $60,060, made up of the full 33% revenue from the Principality, the quarter of the 33% revenue from the Grand Duchies because he is a Grand Duke with one Grand Duchy, and 57% of the 33% revenue from the Duchies/townships, because he owns 57% of the Duchies/townships. The 3 Grand Dukes would each get $8,333 each, and each Duke and Baron would get $2,380. If one Duke owned 2 Duchies, and there was one less Duke, he would get double the money.
The revenue distribution model is rather complex, but it can be condensed down to two principles:
i. The money is divided equally between the three landholding classes.
ii. Within the classes, the money is divided proportionally based on how many duchies, grand duchies and townships each noble holds.

As for actual concrete benefits, as a Baron you get:

• A share of the revenue.
• A minor military unit.
• Higher savings rates and lower loan rates at the Crown Bank.
• You enter the line of succession to the Volticadian throne, so if I die IRL or abdicate the throne, you may well become the new Prince. Grand Dukes are at the top of the line of succession, with the Grand Duke who has held the title for the longest period of time being the heir apparent, and first in line to the throne. I believe you have plans to become a Grand Duke, yes?
• Free teleports through the Royal Mail and Teleportation Service.
• The title of Baron, meaning you can be officially addressed as His Lordship Jason of Newsilver. You can also select yourself a ruling name, the system is flexible.
• Whatever other priveleges I can think of.

 

It's quite unlikely one person will be entirely responsible for the majority of the income. As the Prince is the main person responsible for services to the entire Principality, such as the Army, the Press, the public farms, the postal service, the bank and the stock exchange. Principality services will form a large part of the income, alongside land sales managed by the rest of the nobility.
That's a justification of why I get the 33%. The main reason I'm getting the extra amount is because I am owning and managing a grand duchy and 8 duchies. Put simply, if you want more money, a) build more towns loosely, b) apply for grand dukeship, so you can get a slice of the grand dukedom's profits, and more income from being a duke because of the extra duchies.

It should also be noted that if any town is a net contributor to the empire, and could be making more on their own, I will make sure to put the net beneficiaries to work, by asking the benefiting dukes to make use of the excess money by investing in their town to make more money, and if they fail to do so, I can remove them from their position and take ownership of the town, perhaps appointing someone else to do a better job of it.

Also, the difference between your ruling name and official name is:
a) Your official name is Jason1964.
b) As a Grand Duke, your full ruling name may be The Most Graceful Jason MCMLXIV, Grand Duke of (your grand duchy), Duke of (your duchies within your Grand Duchy), Baron of Newsilver, and Defender of His Highness' Honour (me). The letters after your name are Roman numeral for 1964, but you can change that and your actual name if you want to make it sound better.

 

Hello

 

There will be a registry office in the Palace, you'll probably have to have a word there if you wish to become a Grand Duke or any noble
Also, to enter the Volticadian Empire, you will need to agree to a contract, which makes me pay out the appropriate profits to you, and makes sure I am an owner in your town and you pledge allegiance to me. Part of it will allow me to take ownership of your town in extreme circumstances, when you are hugely failing to contribute to the Empire, but we'll cross that bridge if we come to it