Notice:
Many of the quotes are paraphrases based on memory. They may not be 100% accurate, but they get the general point across in what was said.
If you did not read about the war between the Ender Warriors and the Bone Archers, click here to read about it. It gives this story far more context.
So, continuing from our previous story, this is another story about my Thursday 6-8 grade 2016-2017 Minecraft class. Our story begins about 3 or 4 weeks after where we left off with the war situation.
Fairy Tale: Non-Representative Democratic Communism - No official leader
Fairy Tale is still quite small and not technologically focused, but they've worked out everything they really need, and their exploring frequently brings them valuables for trade with Jace. They have run across some situations where they could not come to consensus, and have thus put matters up to a majority vote. This behaviour, being democratic, makes them a Communist civilization that uses Democracy to solve their more difficult social issues. Still no leader has been elected, and no single person appears to act as a leader.
Bone Archers: Democratic Republic - President: Alex - VP: Jake - Ambassador: Kai
Having been so victorious in our last story, the Bone Archers have grown in population to the point where over 50% of the class are citizens of their city. They now have a reinforced citadel wall lined with spike traps to defend their capital, and they moved their primary storage pit into the basement of the citadel. They are prepared to defend themselves, but are not actively working on weapons or armor technologies anymore.
Ender Warriors: Autocracy - Dictator: Zack
In shambles after the previous story events, the Ender Warriors have become extremely small in size. Still following Zack as dictator, still determined for greatness, and still armed with the weaponry Zack developed, they have run off in search of adventure and large monsters to slay, in hopes to find treasure. Unfortunately, they did not consider the fact that large monsters typically don't have much of value. But they seem to have fun slaying the monsters nonetheless.
Wheat World: Democracy - President: Isiah - VP: Cameron - Ambassador: Cameron
Wheat World, now having calmed down after the war situation, is struggling with some issues with their president being too laid back. The civilization is starting to fall apart due to political inaction.
And this is where our story begins...
President Isiah was giving too much power to Vice President Cameron. He was not making active decisions for the group's overall growth, instead running off to do his own thing, leaving Cameron in charge. Cameron would approach him with ideas, and he would simply say yes and move on.
The lack of attention being paid to the citizens of Wheat World was starting to show.
The citizens were making secret underground caverns and building private bunkers. One citizen in particular, Ivan, had a great system of private ore smelters and casting tables. He also had a large storage facility, the entirety of which was unknown to, and hidden from, the other citizens and leaders. The entrance to this cavern and bunker system was hidden using a door that was designed to look exactly like the wall of a mountainside, similar to the back door of Erebor, from The Hobbit.
All of this was built because, most probably, Ivan did not trust his leaders, but still wanted to use them for what they provided, and did not want to move. He did not share any of his personal stores and kept very much to himself.
The Bone Archers, having gained so many new citizens, began to realize an extreme need to expand again.
They needed to grow their city outward to make room for new buildings and facilities for their immigrants. So Ambassador Kai was sent to scout the surrounding areas and find a area to expand into. There is a classroom rule that says claimed land must have signs and fences* surrounding it to illustrate a definite property line. Most of the surrounding area was claimed already, made evident by the signs and fences. But there was a perfect empty area in a fairly large nearby swamp.
*I provide the students with an endless supply of signs and fences for this purpose.
Kai reported his findings back to President Alex, and Alex had Vice President Jake get the construction team working on fencing and signing the area to claim the land. After the land was sufficiently marked as claimed, Jake put Kai in charge of the construction and went back to work on his steam powered drilling system for advanced mining. Kai got the team of immigrants working on the bridges and foundations necessary for building on the swamp land, since the plan was that they were going to build their own buildings together, and the Bone Archer capital would supply the resources they need to do so. Kai was just overseeing, in case they needed help.
The swamp land that the Bone Archers were expanding into pushed the Bone Archers closer toward Wheat World.
But Jake and Kai left a small neutral zone between them, so the fenced areas weren't pushed directly up against each other. They figured that was a good idea because it would make Wheat World feel less like they were being "taken over", since the Bone Archers had no ill intent. And the creeks and bodies of water in the swamp helped act like a natural border as well.
Everything looked like it was completely thought through! There would be no problem, right?
Wrong, unfortunately... Ivan's caverns passed underneath that swamp land. He didn't claim the surface area because he didn't think to, and also because this whole area was supposed to be a secret in the first place. So Ivan, after noticing that the Bone Archers were expanding onto the swamp's surface, began to audibly protest the expansion. During his protest of the expansion, it looked like he was building something in the swamp, attempting to claim a part of it, or just trespassing. I wasn't sure which. He claimed that the swamp is property of Wheat World, pressing President Isiah and Vice President Cameron to do something about it. Isiah was very apathetic, and Cameron said he had no record that any of Wheat World ever claimed the swamp. Regular little bureaucrats, aren't they?
Ambassador Kai noticed the trespassing, said it was illegal, but because of the circumstances, did not fine him. Ivan left the swamp. Kai said that if the swamp were property of Wheat World, why was none of it clearly marked as claimed, as per the classroom rules? Ivan replied:
"The surface may not be claimed, but we have mining caverns underground that are."
Now this prompted Ambassador Kai to go looking for those caverns, which made Ivan very uneasy, considering his secret bunker is down there. Kai found the entrance leading down into the caverns, it was on Wheat World land, and the entrance to the cavern was, cleverly, marked as claimed by Wheat World as a mining shaft.
Kai, being in a somewhat time-sensitive position, did not journey back to report this to President Alex, and instead proposed his own answer to the situation:
"Since you have mine shafts underground, and we're just on the surface, how about we make an agreement to never dig underground in this swamp?"
When I overheard that, I thought it was actually a surprisingly good compromise. But unfortunately, Ivan did not think so. He said that he had plans to expand the mine shafts and connect them to various points on the surface. Kai replied:
"Then you probably should have claimed the land on the surface."
That did not go over well with Ivan, who looked visibly upset and demanded that Kai get off his property, in a louder than expected voice. President Alex, hearing raised voices in the classroom, recalled Kai back to the citadel and was briefed on the exchange. Ivan, in the meantime, began talking about going to war over claim of the swamp.
I realized at this point that I'm going to need to keep a very close eye on this situation, because there was some real emotional tension in the room.
I made sure to remind both sides that there are rules in this classroom, during times of peace or war, that nobody can steal or destroy another person's belongings.
I went back and forth between Ivan and the Bone Archers to get their sides of the story, and to occasionally help act as a mediator to ensure nobody will get too enraged during conversation. Alex maintained that the Bone Archers were legally in the right, and Ivan started going down a spiral of calling them evil, claiming they wanted to take everyone over. Because of Ivan's behaviour, Alex stood his ground and made less effort to communicate, since he saw it wasn't accomplishing anything.
I went back and forth between Ivan and the Bone Archers to get their sides of the story, and to occasionally help act as a mediator to ensure nobody will get too enraged during conversation. Alex maintained that the Bone Archers were legally in the right, and Ivan started going down a spiral of calling them evil, claiming they wanted to take everyone over. Because of Ivan's behaviour, Alex stood his ground and made less effort to communicate, since he saw it wasn't accomplishing anything.
When I saw that this wasn't going to go anywhere, and that it was clearly going to fester and get worse, I suggested that Ivan purchase the section of land he wanted from the Bone Archers.
Ivan responded that the swamp is rightfully his, and therefore the Bone Archers should be purchasing it from him.
In the midst of this, unbeknownst to Ivan, Cameron and Isiah were checked out of the situation and discussing breaking off and forming their own group. During the chaos and tension between the Bone Archers and Ivan, Wheat World fell apart, dispersed, and decided to join the Bone Archers, having seen their success. This left only Ivan, who didn't realize his town was being abandoned. He was too busy making weapons to fight the Bone Archers. Isiah and Cameron, at this point, wanted to be a neutral mercenary duo, and they stepped back to see if anyone would hire them during the progressing chaos.
Having heard a declaration of war, I told both sides that we need a clear definition of what each side gets if they win or lose. Ivan seemed reluctant to even imagine that they could win, and writing those definitions down proved difficult. Just out of curiosity, I asked Alex what price he would give the swamp land if he would be willing to sell it. He said he would listen to offers, but would not put out a price himself, since he was reluctant to sell.
Zack said that war is more trouble than it's worth, and that Ivan should try to find a less violent way to solve the problem.
he said. I was very proud of that moment... I'm so glad Zack took something valuable away from the events of my previous story :)
I believe it was at this point we had to wrap things up for the day, so I announced that the server was being shut down in 10 minutes and they had to wrap up what they were doing and log out. We would continue next week. I sat back, observing the students as they logged out of their computers, and I noticed that Ivan was in some deep concentration.
Alex and Kai both stopped for a moment when they glanced at Ivan's screen. One of the other students said that Ivan was trespassing, and another student said "What are you doing?!" I looked over as the look on Kai's face grew into a panic, and Alex's eyes widened.
Surprised at the level of rage and volume I was dealing with, I had to make a conscious effort to keep calm and keep my voice down. I told him I shut the server down, because I don't know what he was doing, but he certainly wasn't logging off. Ivan interrupted me with deep rage in his voice,
His voice said one thing, but his tone and expression said he wanted to physically attack me. I pieced a few things together at this point. Many of the items I saw in his inventory about 10 minutes earlier were ingredients for making explosives. I mentally prepared myself; remembering the defensive training I had in Karate class years ago, I said calmly, slowly, and clearly,
Ivan started to approach me, and began screaming something loudly. I don't remember what he began to scream, because at that moment his father walked into my classroom yelling,
About this time, Ivan, his father, and myself were the only people in the room; everybody else slipped out the door carefully, Kai quickly whispered "Thank you" in my ear on his way out, while Ivan was talking to his father. I am so glad Ivan's very tall and muscular father showed up, because I was honestly worried I'd have to defend myself, and who knew what that would mean with the other students and expensive electronics nearby.
Ivan's father laid into him, demanding he apologize for his actions toward me. I explained very briefly what the situation was, and told him I would email him a more detailed description of the events later. Eventually, Ivan apologized. He exploded at his father right afterward for having to apologize, so... I'm not sure it was truly heartfelt, to be honest. They left after a bit.
I logged in with Ivan's character to find that I was right outside the Bone Archer citadel wall, on the side nearest to the capital building's storage rooms. In Ivan's inventory was saltpeter, gunpowder, sulfur, a block of TNT, and a torch. And in his hands were flint and steel, for starting a fire. Had I waited any longer before kicking him from the server, he'd have blown a large hole in the citadel wall, possibly taking out a piece of the Bone Archer storage room with it.
I moved Ivan's character to the neutral trading post and deleted all the explosives and explosive ingredients from his inventory. Then I removed from the server all the explosive crafting recipes, effectively banning all forms of TNT from the server. Some people used TNT for mining, but this situation put an end to that. I logged out, leaving Ivan at the trading post.
I told Ivan that if I saw another blatant disregard for the classroom rules again, he would be removed from class. The Bone Archers said they would treat the situation only as an act of trespassing, and ignore that he was holding TNT, since trespassing was the only true act of aggression that took place. Therefore, Ivan needed to pay the trespassing fine. Alex, Jake, and Kai agreed on a 2 diamond fine, equivalent to 48 nuggets*. *Thaumium nuggets are a universal form of currency in the classroom. 48 nuggets isn't a bad price, considering what happened.
Ivan refused to pay the trespassing fine. Kai said that according to their constitution, one-on-one armed combat would also be acceptable. The Bone Archer constitution specified that the combat must be between two people of equal equipment, so neither side has an unfair advantage. Kai was going to act as the Bone Archer representative for the fight.
I agreed to allow the combat, but only if it takes place on a separate server, so nobody else can be affected. I said that I would provide iron plate armor, iron swords, and a longbow with arrows to both parties. If Ivan wins, the fine goes away. If the Bone Archers win, then the fine doubles. As I was preparing the combat server, Kai came over to me and whispered in my ear,
I thanked him, because that was actually very big of them, considering the circumstances. Cameron, the former vice president of the now disbanded Wheat World, offered to pay off Ivan's debts so we could all just go back to enjoying ourselves. Ivan refused to let him.
Glancing at his monitor, I noticed that Ivan was, once again, gathering resources to make explosives. I told him that I disabled all the explosives recipes after last week's incident. He wasn't very pleased with me. He repeated his claim that the Bone Archers were evil, but when I asked him why he thought that, he didn't answer. I asked him what they did to upset him in the first place, and he didn't answer. I saw that he had far more than enough diamonds and currency to pay off his debt, but he insisted that they didn't deserve it.
As I was trying to make sure he was on the same page, his responses, though indirect, seemed to indicate to me that he was trying to think up some other means of destroying their citadel.
We spent so much of the class debating over how the debt situation was going to be resolved that nothing ended up happening, and it was getting close for class to end again. Too much talk and not enough solid decisions meant that I had to announce that I was shutting the server down in 10 minutes, so everyone should wrap up what they're doing and make sure they're in a safe location to stop. Ivan chirped up and said,
So at this point, Ivan was the only remaining member of Wheat World, effectively making the group disbanded.
Having heard a declaration of war, I told both sides that we need a clear definition of what each side gets if they win or lose. Ivan seemed reluctant to even imagine that they could win, and writing those definitions down proved difficult. Just out of curiosity, I asked Alex what price he would give the swamp land if he would be willing to sell it. He said he would listen to offers, but would not put out a price himself, since he was reluctant to sell.
At around this point, Zack, from the Ender Warriors, came to talk to Ivan.
Zack said that war is more trouble than it's worth, and that Ivan should try to find a less violent way to solve the problem.
"Take it from someone who has already learned this lesson,"
he said. I was very proud of that moment... I'm so glad Zack took something valuable away from the events of my previous story :)
The talk of war settled for the next 10 minutes or so, and Ivan remained silent.
I believe it was at this point we had to wrap things up for the day, so I announced that the server was being shut down in 10 minutes and they had to wrap up what they were doing and log out. We would continue next week. I sat back, observing the students as they logged out of their computers, and I noticed that Ivan was in some deep concentration.
Alex was the last of the Bone Archers to log off, and he and Kai walked by Ivan on their way to the door.
Alex and Kai both stopped for a moment when they glanced at Ivan's screen. One of the other students said that Ivan was trespassing, and another student said "What are you doing?!" I looked over as the look on Kai's face grew into a panic, and Alex's eyes widened.
Alex yelled out, "NO!"
Kai pleaded, "Don't do it!"
Alex pointed his finger at Ivan's monitor, looking at me. I didn't know exactly what was happening, but I knew it was time sensitive, and the students were supposed to be logging out, and Ivan was the only one still logged in. So I typed a quick command and kicked Ivan from the server. Then I quickly saved the server and shut it off. Ivan leaped up from his computer and screamed.
"WHAT?!"
He turned to me and screamed again,
"WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
Surprised at the level of rage and volume I was dealing with, I had to make a conscious effort to keep calm and keep my voice down. I told him I shut the server down, because I don't know what he was doing, but he certainly wasn't logging off. Ivan interrupted me with deep rage in his voice,
"DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU'VE DONE?!"
His voice said one thing, but his tone and expression said he wanted to physically attack me. I pieced a few things together at this point. Many of the items I saw in his inventory about 10 minutes earlier were ingredients for making explosives. I mentally prepared myself; remembering the defensive training I had in Karate class years ago, I said calmly, slowly, and clearly,
"I know exactly what I have done. I have stopped you from breaking the rules of my classroom. It is unacceptable for you to attack the Bone Archers' base with dynamite. It is even more unacceptable to do so while everybody is logging out for the day, leaving themselves defenseless."
Ivan started to approach me, and began screaming something loudly. I don't remember what he began to scream, because at that moment his father walked into my classroom yelling,
"I don't know WHAT is going on in here, but there can be NO EXCUSE for you to be speaking to your teacher in this manner!"
About this time, Ivan, his father, and myself were the only people in the room; everybody else slipped out the door carefully, Kai quickly whispered "Thank you" in my ear on his way out, while Ivan was talking to his father. I am so glad Ivan's very tall and muscular father showed up, because I was honestly worried I'd have to defend myself, and who knew what that would mean with the other students and expensive electronics nearby.
Ivan's father laid into him, demanding he apologize for his actions toward me. I explained very briefly what the situation was, and told him I would email him a more detailed description of the events later. Eventually, Ivan apologized. He exploded at his father right afterward for having to apologize, so... I'm not sure it was truly heartfelt, to be honest. They left after a bit.
I started the server back up by myself to check if there was any property damage, and to move Ivan back to neutral ground.
I logged in with Ivan's character to find that I was right outside the Bone Archer citadel wall, on the side nearest to the capital building's storage rooms. In Ivan's inventory was saltpeter, gunpowder, sulfur, a block of TNT, and a torch. And in his hands were flint and steel, for starting a fire. Had I waited any longer before kicking him from the server, he'd have blown a large hole in the citadel wall, possibly taking out a piece of the Bone Archer storage room with it.
I moved Ivan's character to the neutral trading post and deleted all the explosives and explosive ingredients from his inventory. Then I removed from the server all the explosive crafting recipes, effectively banning all forms of TNT from the server. Some people used TNT for mining, but this situation put an end to that. I logged out, leaving Ivan at the trading post.
The next class day I explained that I was going to let the TNT situation off with a warning for now, since no damage was done.
I told Ivan that if I saw another blatant disregard for the classroom rules again, he would be removed from class. The Bone Archers said they would treat the situation only as an act of trespassing, and ignore that he was holding TNT, since trespassing was the only true act of aggression that took place. Therefore, Ivan needed to pay the trespassing fine. Alex, Jake, and Kai agreed on a 2 diamond fine, equivalent to 48 nuggets*. *Thaumium nuggets are a universal form of currency in the classroom. 48 nuggets isn't a bad price, considering what happened.
Ivan refused to pay the trespassing fine. Kai said that according to their constitution, one-on-one armed combat would also be acceptable. The Bone Archer constitution specified that the combat must be between two people of equal equipment, so neither side has an unfair advantage. Kai was going to act as the Bone Archer representative for the fight.
I agreed to allow the combat, but only if it takes place on a separate server, so nobody else can be affected. I said that I would provide iron plate armor, iron swords, and a longbow with arrows to both parties. If Ivan wins, the fine goes away. If the Bone Archers win, then the fine doubles. As I was preparing the combat server, Kai came over to me and whispered in my ear,
"We really just want to put this situation behind us, so I have Alex's approval to let Ivan win."
I thanked him, because that was actually very big of them, considering the circumstances. Cameron, the former vice president of the now disbanded Wheat World, offered to pay off Ivan's debts so we could all just go back to enjoying ourselves. Ivan refused to let him.
Glancing at his monitor, I noticed that Ivan was, once again, gathering resources to make explosives. I told him that I disabled all the explosives recipes after last week's incident. He wasn't very pleased with me. He repeated his claim that the Bone Archers were evil, but when I asked him why he thought that, he didn't answer. I asked him what they did to upset him in the first place, and he didn't answer. I saw that he had far more than enough diamonds and currency to pay off his debt, but he insisted that they didn't deserve it.
At this point I was worried that Ivan was going to jump into the fight, win, and declare that they owed him something afterward besides debt-forgiveness.
As I was trying to make sure he was on the same page, his responses, though indirect, seemed to indicate to me that he was trying to think up some other means of destroying their citadel.
We spent so much of the class debating over how the debt situation was going to be resolved that nothing ended up happening, and it was getting close for class to end again. Too much talk and not enough solid decisions meant that I had to announce that I was shutting the server down in 10 minutes, so everyone should wrap up what they're doing and make sure they're in a safe location to stop. Ivan chirped up and said,
"What? I thought were were doing the combat today!"
I replied,
"We no longer have enough time for that. It takes 5 to 10 minutes to set up the arena alone, not to mention the 5 to 10 minutes your fight will take. We'll do it at the beginning of class next week."
Ivan was clearly distraught that he couldn't do the fight now. He said he was working on equipment to use in the fight. I told him that the fight was going to take place on a different server, and that he wouldn't be able to use that equipment anyway. The point is that it will be a fair fight, with the same equipment used on both sides.
Having heard me this time, he wrapped up what he was doing in-game and logged out. I told him I would have everything prepared for the combat at the beginning of class next week, and that if he changes his mind, the option of paying off his debt with currency still stands.
The next class approached and everyone was ready for the big fight. I had prepared a second server for the combat.
In that server world was naught but a single building - a scale recreation of the Roman Colosseum. I projected an aerial view of the ring on the classroom projector, so curious viewers didn't have to log onto the server to see the fight. Kai had logged onto the server and chose his side of the ring, equipping the iron equipment I laid out for him.
Ivan entered the classroom, looking happier than I'd seen him in months. He sat down at his computer, opened Minecraft, and while the game loaded he announced,
"Sorry guys, I'm just gonna pay you the two diamonds."
Kai and I shared a moment, looking at each other in great surprise. Kai logged off the Colosseum server and said "Thank you!"
I shut the Colosseum server down and logged onto the regular classroom server to oversee the debt exchange. I told Ivan and Kai it would probably be best to do the exchange at the neutral trading post. They agreed.
To my surprise, the exchange happened quickly and smoothly. It was just over and done without any issue.
At this point it was apparent to Ivan that Wheat World has disappeared. A bit more distressing a surprise was that former-president Isiah and former-vice president Cameron had both joined the Bone Archers, just like everyone else.
After some processing time, I talked with Ivan and asked if he was okay. He said "Yeah, I feel a lot better now. But I need to find a new group."
Ivan lived right next to what used to be Wheat World's capital, right by the Bone Archer border.
Jace was a nomad, but during the events of this class he developed a close trading relationship with the Ender Warriors, effectively becoming one of them. The Ender Warriors invited Ivan to their civilization, but they lived kind of like tribal barbarians now, and that wasn't really him. Fairy Tale was very far away, and not much of an option since he didn't like their communism structure. I told him he's also welcome to be a nomad for a while if he wants time to himself, and there's no rush.
Next week, because I saw a few comparisons, I assigned the students history homework that covered the two Punic Wars.
Ivan, later, asked if he could join the Bone Archers as a blacksmith ;)
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