Foundational Theodia

This article details the history of Theodia at and shortly after the time of its founding, covering the time from April 2010 to June 2011. In the context of the greater MicroWiki(a) community, this places this period of Theodian history as occurring during and between the Late Lethlerism Era (aka the "New Boom") and the Tension Era. Unlike the Transisional Era and Maturational Era, Theodia during this time played a fairly active role in intermicronational politics, engaging in multiple supramicronational organizations and signing quite a few treaties.

Founding

Theodia was founded as a kingdom by Swena, then styled "His Grace, King Svenn Bradsson Schroeder I", on 22 April 2010. Prior to founding Theodia, Swena had spent many months constantly thinking about making a better nation — in ser words, "one that upholds the long-lost work ethic of America, one that truly cares about its subjects, one that abhors multiculturalism within one nation, and one that advocates Integrity and Truth; an example for all other nations, micro and macro". Swena acknowledged the likely futility of that goal but felt that it needed to be attempted anyway. Swena theorized what might constitute the proper foundations of a nation, and decided upon these three: language, culture, and religion; and this came to be known as ser "Tripartite Approach" to creating a nation of people.

Formation of a national language

Swena believed that language was the most powerful delimiter of nations, the ultimate divider and unifier of cultures. Because of this, the Theodian language (at the time, known as "Theodspraask") has been central to Theodia's development from day one. It was intended to take advantage of linguistic-relativistic effects to "optimize" the thought of its speakers.

Swena also wrote a specification for a Theodian dialect of English, which was intended to develop alongside the culture.

Formation of a national culture

Swena also believed that one of the most important contributors to a nation's ultimate survival was a strong culture. Early Theodia did not end up developing much of a unique culture, though, because the country was so focused on developing a national language first. Regardless, it did adapt elements of south-Floridian culture and the traditions Swena inherited from ser Scandinavian ancestors.

Formation of a national religion

Swena considered religion to be another very important unifier and divider of people, but se focused more on excluding incompatible faiths from the society than se did on spreading any "one true faith". Even so, Swena did seek to ingrain elements of ser own brand of Neopaganism within the society, and Theodia's early alliance with West Germania was partially motivated by religious similarities.

This focus on compatible religions was represented in the eventual constitution, which ended up having a complicated system of religious freedoms and restrictions based on similarities and differences between religions, with the most dominant religion becoming the national religion. This system was controversial intermicronationally, especially due to its implementation of Jizya and its ban on Muslims and Satanists; but Swena believed it was an important step towards ensuring Theodia remained monocultural and moral.

Swena also had quiet aspirations to create a novel religion based in the occult and the teachings of Sophia, perhaps to be named "Kaerism". This never came to pass, but some work was done on compiling a holy book.

Context

Theodia was born out of the frustration and desperation of the Great Recession. Originally based out of Florida, many of Theodia's citizens` families were hit especially hard by the global financial crisis. Macronations the world-over were consumed by incompetence and corruption, and Theodians wanted a chance at something better.

Pre-constitution

The Kingdom of Theodia was, at first, an absolute non-hereditary monarchy; but this was intended to change once a constitution had been written: Theodia was to become a "centristic, meritocratic, demarchical, monocultural, non-secular, constitutional, parliamentary, non-hereditary, monarchical, unitary, micronation-state".

Istorian-Erusian War

Swena publicly condemned Istoria's war against Erusia, stating, "It is a wholly unnecessary and absolutely ludicrous action. Erusia has given Istoria no cause to war, and Istoria has no reason, whatsoever, to declare war on Erusia. We condemn this pseudo-conflict, and hope that Istoria will avoid making such rash and unwise decisions in the future." (comment claimed to have been written originally in Theodian). Swena later told Istoria that their reasons were "against Sun Tzu"; and that it would be impossible for them to make any money off of the conflict, and that the thought of doing so was crazy. Swena commonly refered to the war as a "joke".

The end of Erusia

Swena was appalled by the actions of PtrCancer and supported movements to de-admin him and to remove him from the community stating, "We, as a micronational community, cannot go on with any true notion of integrity if this scumbag is allowed to remain in our community. Such lies should not be tolerated, nor easily forgiven, and if he'll do it once, he'll darn sure do it again. Kick him out. It's bad enough that macronations are so willing to lie. the last thing we need is one of our own doing the same. Again, kick him out." Theodia officially unrecognised Erusia on the day of its defaming (29 July 2010), and updated their MicroWiki articles several days later. Note the use of the archaic 'him' in the comment; in modern Theodian English, this has been replaced by 'hirm'.

The original flag of the Runic Union

The founding of the Runic Union

The Kingdoms of Theodia and West Germania forged an alliance and created the Runic Union for the advancement of Germanic cultures and nations within the intermicronational community.

The first Theodian expansion

On 8 June or 6 August, the Kingdom of Theodia expanded to the Spanish version of MicroWikia. It was somewhat active in that community for a time and helped out the Republic of Undercity in its early days. It has since become defunct.

The Starlandic Civil War

The Kingdom of Theodia had originally declared its support for the rebels, "After much consideration." There were many reasons given for this, chiefest among them the attempts by Starland to annex the defamed Erusia as a province, with Lethler as the leader. Swena was also astonished by King Nik usurping the legitimate ruler of Starland, the "Eternal" Queen Star, after promising to give it back to her. Swena also piled on the state's legalization of marijuana. Swena had said that the rebels may help to bring stability to "this unstable and corrupted nation".

However, Swena later found out that Theodia had been misinformed and nearly all of their reasons for supporting the rebels were based upon false information. Se then switched Theodia to a neutral position on the conflict.

The Draco Republic scandal

The Draco Republic had declared war meaninglessly upon several micronations in September. The Kingdom of Theodia, along with many other micronational entities, in response, declared an embargo upon the Draco Republic so as to pressure the nation into surrendering and making amends for its crimes. This was the first time that the Kingdom of Theodia had ever declared an embargo of any kind upon any entity. As well, the Theodian national DEFCON level was raised to 1 during this period of time, the first time it had ever reached such heights. Swena strongly opposed the deletion of the nation's article, saying:

...We must never either delete or change history. To do so would be to 'pull a 1984'. This article cannot be deleted, lest we, as a community, aim to become no better than Big Brother. Speakwrite, anyone?..

— His Grace, King Svenn Bradsson Schroeder I of Theodia

Swena then went on to personally improve the quality of the "Draconian article" with a little help from other micronations with similar views of the issue, whilst advocating for the eventual locking of the article in the stead of simply deleting it and making it as if it never was. In the end, however, the article was deleted and not locked. Swena was duly disappointed, considering the event to be a loss of history.

The article was quietly restored in 2013 as an example of how not to use MicroWiki.

The formation of political parties within Theodia

Swena wanted political parties for Theodia in order to help organize ser subjects by their political stances. However, se wanted to avoid some of the emotional baggage and stereotyping already associated with many of the more-commonly-used party names. After much thought, Swena came up with the idea of naming the Theodian Political parties after the five classical elements in Wicca, with Æther' (Spirit) representing centrism and balance, Ignis (Fire) representing both realism and authoritarianism, Aër (Air) representing liberalism and capitalism, Aqua (Water) representing idealism and libertarianism, and Terra (Earth) representing conservativism and socialism. The formation of the five political parties began on Wednesday, 22 September 2010. Flags had been made for all of the parties by Saturday, the 25th. These were the only political parties allowed in the Kingdom of Theodia. Their meanings changed during the second constitutional convention.

A political cartoon made by Swena, showing broad intermicronational denigration of the war.

The Atlantis Civil War

Commenting on the war-hype of the Atlantis Civil War, what se perceived to be petty and absurd, Swena stated that the war seemed more like a bunch of teenagers running around and shooting at each other, than a nation trying to fend-off some dangerous terrorist group. Swena urged both sides to initiate peace talks as quickly as possible so that this "embarrassing conflict might end with some dignity". Se suggested talking things out like "civilized human beings", because "so few things in micronationalism are truly worth waging 'war' for".

The Hunting 2260_RE Althing

The Kingdom of Theodia was one of two member-states of the Runic Union present at this particular Althing, which also happened to be the first Althing ever hosted by the Union. Swena was given the honor of not only participating in the debates but moderating them as well. The Althing ended well, and nearly all of the semi-year's agenda was completed.

Pre-Mentia

Around this time, founder Swena styled himself as "Hir Grace, Kyng Sweyn Bradsson Schroeder I", and the Kingdom of Theodia was often referred to as the "Kyngdom" in writing.

The first constitutional convention

The first Theodian Constitution-Convention began on 17 October 2010. It ended on 23 October, when the constitution was ratified. Many important figures in Theodian history were present, namely Swena and Javier (later, 'Havier'). It was later somewhat ashamedly revealed by Swena that this constitution, although ratified, had never been finished.

Independence

On 22 October 2010, in an effort to prevent the country from going inactive, Swena declared the Kingdom of Theodia to be independent from the United States of America, although no-one else recognized this act, and the US was not informed. This declaration occurred nominally exactly six months after Theodia was founded.

The lull of independence

This was a period of time of inactivity in the Kingdom of Theodia that lasted about four months, and was at the time referred to as "The Dark Age of Theodia". It began shortly after the declaration of Theodian Independence from the United States of America, and, although there is no exact date for the beginning and/or end of this time period, it is generally accepted that it began around the beginning of November 2010; peaked around the time of the total lunar eclipse of December 2010; and ended towards the close of February 2011. There were fairly few advancements in the Kingdom of Theodia during this period, but there were at least a couple bright moments in this era of darkness, for it was in this period that a cursive form of the runes and a runic font were created for the Theodian language. A long list of plans for the future was later made by Kyng Sweyn, signalling the end of this period of Theodia's history.

What the website looked like

The Second Theodian Expansion

Theodia moved to the new MicroWiki, forsaking its older articles on MicroWikia; most of these older ones were eventually deleted. The Kingdom of Theodia expanded to many new parts of the web during this era, making pages on Google, Facebook, Micronations Manager, MicroWiki, Webs, and Youtube.

The Istorian outrage

Theodian-Istorian relations had never been particularly great, with the Kyngdom historically opposed to some Istorian movements. When Theodian Intelligence received word that Istoria's leader, Mr Max Kasbar, had declared that all homosexuals in Istoria would be "executed" and that se refused to recognize unchristian nations, Sweyn and ser advisors enacted a diplomatic embargo against Istoria. The embargo was to remain until either Mr Kasbar rescinded his statements or was dethroned. As Sweyn wrote to Max Kasbar at the time:

Mr. Kasbar, I've never been fond of you, and we've had our disagreements in the past. But this time, you take things too far. I, after consulting my advisers, have enacted an embargo on your petty "micronation" until you either rescind your statements or are dethroned. Yours is a stain on our community.

— Hir Grace, Kyng Sweyn of Theodia

Theodia's first coat of arms.
Designed during the second convention.

The second constitutional convention

With the ascension of Theodia from its "Dark Age", the framers of the original constitution decided it would be a good time for a rewrite. So, on 11/06/11, the Kingdom of Theodia's second constitutional convention began.

Controversially, it was revealed on the same date that although the original constitution had been ratified and that there had been a constitutional convention before, the original constitution of Theodia was never finished and, therefore, there are no copies of it available; the current constitution of Theodia is actually just a soon-to-be-completed version of the unfinished original. A copy of the new constitution was made available on the Kingdom's national website.

At the time of its release, Sweyn stated that this constitution had been influenced by realism, enlightened absolutism, and demarchy.

The OAM

The Kingdom of Theodia began, for the first time in its history, actively seeking membership in supramicronational organizations like the OAM and the OUM. It was accepted-into both and was very active in the OAM for awhile after admittance, but upon the beginning of the American school-year, Theodia's activity rapidly declined, reaching about one check a month by the time of the OAM's demise. While the organization existed, Theodia was involved in a number of issues, from its somewhat controversial acceptance to the long-drawn-out issue of New Guinea's legitimacy.

Controversy over monoculturalism

There was some controversy about the monocultural policies of Theodia's old constitution, especially in regards to its neighborhood-quotas' racial policies. These policies in the constitution sparked a controversial debate over Theodia's acceptance into the OAM. Kyng Sweyn responded to this via an article on the national website.

The New Guinean controversy

In the New Guinean controversy, Theodia at first opposed the proposed expulsion of the micronation from the OAM because its leader had significantly helped Theodia's entrance-into the OAM. However, as the issue went-on, it became harder and harder to support the accusedly rogue micronation, and so Theodia, unable to support the motion to expel New Guinea with integrity, switched-to abstaining from voting. Upon the revealing of more evidence, Theodia switched-back to opposing the motion, until the posting of threatening and very inappropriate pictures onto the forum, at which point Theodia switched its position one final time to abstaining from voting. Finally, after several weeks of debate and over 20 pages of posts, the issue came to a close with New Guinea being expelled.

See also

• History of Theodia
• Flag Model of Theodian History
• Transitional Theodia