Project M.O.S.E.S., often abbreviated as MOSES, is a megastructure constructed by HUM to provide a land bridge between their territorial holdings in Properpolis and Etel Metsia. The build consists of glass walls spanning the height from the seafloor to the ocean, forty blocks apart, with the area between being drained of ocean water and "terraformed" via covering the gravel seafloor with dirt, grass, trees, and other flora. The acronym in the name stands for Move Ocean So Etel-metsia is Secure.
Upon the merger between HUM and Etel Metsia, the Hummite government sought to connect their capital city to the sizeable lands acquired in Etel Metsia to the southwest in order to aid in transportation of resources and infrastructural development, as well as encourage settlement in the area. However, the lands to the west that would connect the two are claimed by Montrose, and concern similar lands to those that negotiations had already fallen through regarding attempts to de-enclave the Hummite settlement of Iris. As a last resort, proposals were made to exchange culturally significant lands like the ruins of the Icedale Guild for a contiguous corridor. These were roundly rejected by Montrose, so the dream for over-land local development beyond the limits of the capital city seemed to be in grim condition.
Northern Inspiration
The Vailic lake construction served as inspiration for the construction that would eventually be known as Project MOSES.
Around this time, Flashy10 of Kingdom of Vailan had completed a massive project to create a lake out of a mountainous valley to the north of Fjall, their capital city. Appreciating this instance of Vailan's "Think and Do" mentality and the "big lake energy" such a construction emanated, Hummite GoatWhisperer began to devise a strategy to accomplish the inverse to connect HUM's disparate land holdings. He noted that, while they were disallowed from expanding their territorial holdings, the state owned a large swathe of oceanic territory that was situated between the landmasses. While a much easier project to accomplish would be to simply build out dirt islands over the ocean to form land, GoatWhisperer felt that the "bending of nature to our will" would exemplify the strength of HUM and be a more remarkable feat, creating a world wonder that would help grow HUM's reputation for accomplishing the unthinkable.
Proposal
On 10/05/2021, GoatWhisperer announced he had a "harebrained scheme" for the Hummite population's consideration. He pitched it thus:
Conceptualization of Project MOSES by GoatWhisperer as the idea was proposed on 10/05/2021
"This is a rough, rough approximation... but the core of the idea is to wall off and drain a portion of ocean. We could even cover the land in grass, trees, wildlife to make it appear natural. With a pinch of terraforming, this would create a bridge of usable land running from Proper to Etel Metsia, allowing roads and other over-land development to be built between them. We could also expand the corridor in the future should we desire. While this would be quite the project, my thought to make it doable would be to split the corridor into smaller portions and filling these sections with wooden planks. Wouldn't require much skill. Once the water is displaced it's a simple matter of burning the wood out. This would probably be cheaper and easier than attempting to do it with sponges or something, though that's also an option.
The proposal was met with significant praise. Then-Chancellor ClapYoThighs deemed it a "HUM Level Project" and suggested HUM "make some fancy ass glass walls that hold it all in. Gonna be like Rapture on Crack". Hummites doctorspaghetti, argetlam04, and coolnut10 also spoke in favor. As such, it was adopted as a national project.
Construction
The blueprints doctorspaghetti used to form the first guidelines of MOSES.
The complete construction of the Project, from the first laying of outlines to the last portions of water being removed, took a year and three months. The Project was very labor intensive, with the majority of water requiring hand-placed wooden planks to be removed before the sections would be set alight to remove the wood. This process was made easier when argetlam04 created floating piston machines which could drain water as they moved along, however these machines only worked in straight paths with significant depth, and stopped when the highest level of seafloor was reached. Outside of these geometrically simple portions, the water in MOSES was drained by hand.
On 11/10/2021, doctorspaghetti drew up plans for the bounds of the structure and laid down the first bone blocks to demonstrate the path, beginning the construction phase.
On 11/24/2021, Coblue volunteered to use his experience building circles to revise the curve.
An island was reconstructed by doctorspaghetti as part of the construction of Project MOSES on 3/13/2022.On 3/13/2022, doctorspaghetti reconstructed the island in the middle of the Project which had originally been flattened by the prolific sand-mining company Dinoking93 Excavation Incorporated in 2018, adding sand, grass, and a singular tree.
On 3/31/2022, AbstractEgg drained the majority of the curve portion of the Project.
A picture taken by AbstractEgg of the curve of MOSES immediately post-drainage on 3/31/2022.
On 7/11/2022, GoatWhisperer completed the placement of glass walls along the bone blocks from the curve to Etel Metsia.
On 7/15/2022, catpaco assisted GoatWhisperer in completing drainage of the curve and sections immediately post-curve, which were some of the deepest areas in the entire project.
Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies.
