User:GoatWhisperer

The server is based around the idea of political roleplay. There are many countries that have been created, each with their own unique set of values, government styles, and ethos. These countries engage in diplomacy, trade, and, rarely, even warfare with one another. You can found your own country or join an existing one—that's entirely up to you. There are plenty of countries always looking for new members and allies, so if you need anything, just ask the community.

Server Rules

Please note the following rules are to be followed in spirit, not just in letter. You won't get anywhere arguing semantics about what the rule technically says or does not say. Our staff don't want ban people who accidentally break rules in good faith, but they do have the final word on the meaning of rules.

1. No use of third-party programs that provide an unfair advantage over other players.

• In addition to explicit cheats like combat hacking and x-ray, this includes things like keyboard/mouse macros or automatic reloggers.
• If you wish to use a third-party program, check the list of explicitly allowed/forbidden programs here. If you don't find your program on the list, you must ask staff whether it is allowed, and otherwise assume it is not.

2. No indiscriminate griefing.

• This involves going around destroying stuff regardless of who owns what, as well as with no political reason.
• You can of course grief/raid if you have an in-game RP motivation (and a designated target), but expect retaliation by the target(s) of your actions.
• Spawn is plugin-protected, but nonetheless, griefing Spawn is against the rules.

3. Invite judiciously, and use the form.

• If you want to invite people to the server (and please do!) there's a google form pinned in #important-links-and-info, the same form you used to join. Send it to the person who you want to join, and if we think they're a good fit (it's hard not to be), we'll let them on.
• That being said, please make sure that you only invite people who you believe will be non-toxic and follow the rules of the server—we all have friends that, great as they are, would not make good Elgeis-ers. It's best for the staff, for the community, and for your friendship that you think carefully about who you invite so we don't have to go through the nasty business of banning buddies.

• Additional notes on vetting/inviting:
  1. You may under no circumstances provide the person who you sent the form to with answers for questions asked in the form or during vetting. The process that we have for allowing people onto the server is in place to make sure that only those who will be a good addition actually get on. The server environment only exists because everyone understands and respects how the server works.
  2. Vettees must read this rules page themselves - they can't have them read aloud to them, or sent an abridged version.
  3. If you want to post the invite form in a public place (such as reddit, other discord servers, etc.) ask the admins first.
  4. Before a player is vetted, you may not try to sway them to any ingame viewpoint, including telling them to join/not join countries and forming opinions about individuals/countries. The only exception to this is in the case of a preexisting close friend or family member, where such discussion would be unavoidable.
  5. The ability to speak English is required to be on the server, as virtually all discussion is conducted in English, and being unable to speak it would make participation in the community nearly impossible.
• Players must be, at the very least, 13 years of age. Due to the complex nature of the political simulation it is very unlikely someone below this age could competently participate. Lying about your or anyone else's age will get you banned.

4. No usage of alt accounts.

• One account per person. This includes logging in on someone else's account who's already on the server, such as a sibling or friend.
• Members are freely allowed to attempt to "reroll" their ingame character, but since there is one account per person, others are also freely allowed to recognize or not recognize that change. This is to keep people from escaping IC consequences by changing their character.

5. In order to be on the Minecraft server, you have to be a member of the discord.

• If you leave the discord, you will be removed from the whitelist.

6. Keep in-character (IC) hostility to a reasonable level, and don't be toxic out-of-character (OOC).

• A rule of thumb is that our server is 13+, so the general standard of conduct is to keep things PG-13.
• Don’t use offensive slurs or symbols, repeatedly say “f*** you” to people, spam the chat, repeatedly go out of your way to insult people in OOC discussion, harass others in DMs, or other generally toxic stuff.
  • If you have an issue with another player that makes you think they are breaking any of the server rules, please bring it up in #server-management-discussion or, if you feel uncomfortable with that, in DMs with any of our Staff. Please do not start flaming that person, smearing their name behind their back, throwing vague and unverifiable accusations, or engaging in any form of personal vendetta campaigns - these constitute a form of toxicity as well, and the only way the Staff can properly assess the situation is if you remove yourself from it and provide direct evidence why you think their behaviour is unacceptable.
• Basic common sense housekeeping applies, too—no spamming, no advertising other unaffiliated servers (minecraft and discord alike), trolling (OOC), etc.

7. Don't let the game world (IC) affect the real world (OOC), and likewise don't let the real world affect the game world.

• Do not bring your IRL opinions, biases or presumptions into the game if at all possible; likewise, do not form IRL opinions, biases or presumptions based on someone's actions in the game world. Do not metagame - please read the "What is metagaming?" section of the FAQ below.
• One exception to this is that OOC identity changes (usernames, pronouns, etc.) that do not constitute a change in the actual IC character being played should be respected.
  • Since everyone's feelings are different, we aren't going to stop everyone from ever referencing a past username, but if someone asks you to stop making jokes in regard to their identity, stop.

8. Don't abuse glitches.

• Examples of this include TNT duping, 0-tick farms, breaking or travelling beyond bedrock (including accessing the nether roof), or other abuses of in-game features. That being said, this is a very grey area, and if you're not sure, just ask.

9. Don't make skybases without entrances.

• Any build that has space within or storage within or on top of it must have an entrance that is accessible, without the use of any special items, from the ground of the same dimension. If the entry method uses water, the water must be contained in some kind of tube or other supporting structure.

10. Use each discord channel for what it's meant for.

• Discussion channels don't follow this rule as strictly, but channels such as #mc-world-news have specific guidelines on what belongs there. All channels have their rules outlined at the top, so if you’re not sure what a channel is used for, check there.

Make sure that you read these rules carefully, because this list is your only warning. We're quite good at rooting out rule-breakers, and have many tools to help us do so. Please don't make us have to ban you—you will be found out.

• We have a zero-tolerance policy for rules 1-6, and breaking them will result in a permanent IP ban.
• Rules 7-9 are more lenient, as a lot of the time they're accidentally broken by players operating in good faith. If you do happen to break them, we'll ask you to stop/fix the mistake. However, if you refuse to, or lead the staff to believe the rulebreaking was done maliciously, you will be banned.
• For rule 10, breaking it will result in your message being taken down and you'll be given a warning. If you continue, you may be muted in that particular channel.
• Encouraging rule breaking by others will be treated as if you are breaking the rule yourself.
• Undermining admin ability to enforce rules will be punished harshly. If you're going through all this to get into this private community, it's assumed that you want the rules to be followed so you can have the gameplay experience they're set up to create. It's therefore expected that you will help enforce the rules as a community member by letting staff know about rule-breaking or vulnerabilities for exploits.

Plugins

Factions: The factions plugin allows for protection of builds, chests, doors, etc. within "claimed" territory. Each person in a faction provides that faction with 20 "faction power". Each unit of faction power can be used to make one "faction claim", each 16x16 blocks (1 chunk). But be careful! Each time you die, you lose 4 faction power (it recovers over time), and if your faction power is beneath your faction claims, people can faction claim your claims! To see a full list of faction commands, type [/f help] on the server. Note: Lecterns and trapped chests will be accessible to all, regardless of the chunk's status.

MCMMO: An RPG-themed plugin where players can "level up" by practicing certain skills, from woodcutting to archery to fishing. As you level up skills, you unlock special abilities that let you become powerful within a certain skillset. Here's the MCMMO wiki for more: https://mcmmo.fandom.com/wiki/McMMO_Wiki

Dynmap: A real-time, in-browser, GPS-style map of the server. You can find it pinned in #important-links-and-info.

BetterWanderingTraders: Adds custom wandering trader trades. Currently, you can buy player/block heads and parrot eggs along with the normal vanilla trades from wandering traders.

Brewery: You can brew alcohol and even invent your own recipes.

CombatLog: If you get into combat with another player, this plugin kills you if you log out. Wait for the timer to run out first!

GroogePlugin: Adds a variety of random features. Currently, it adds the functionality to give armor stands arms, /hideflags, and /showflags. Type [/groogehelp] in-game to see the commands and what they do.

LittleComposter: Adds the ability to make items compostable. Currently, the following are compostable:

• Rotten flesh at 15%
• Poisonous potatoes, sugar, and all raw fishes at 50%
• Cooked cod and salmon at 65%

PwnPlantGrowth: Changes how plants grow to be more biome specific, creating a more dynamic and specialized farming environment. The current configuration settings can be found here.

SimpleRename: You can rename items without having to use an anvil or XP. Type [/sr help] in-game to see the commands and what they do.

VillagerModifications: Allows for villager trades to be disabled or their prices changed. Currently, villager trades for food items (soups, cakes, and meat) and glass are disabled, and apples and golden carrots have been made more expensive.

Other differences from vanilla MC:

• Arrows work as fuel in furnaces.
• Drop two sticks on an armor stand to give it arms.
• Putting potions in a furnace will evaporate the liquid and give you an empty bottle.
• Holding an empty glass bottle and picking up XP gives you a Bottle o' Enchanting.
• Zombies have a 5% chance of dropping phantom membranes.
• Shift + right clicking on an item frame turns it invisible.
• Creepers don't do block damage, but do health damage.
• Insomnia is disabled; phantoms don't appear after not sleeping at night.
• The Ender Dragon does not grief blocks.
• Elytras are disabled in the overworld.
• Ender chests are disabled.
• Cobblestone can be smelted into gravel, and gravel into sand, all at a blast furnace in a 20-second process each smelt.

FAQs

What does Elgeis/“LGS” stand for/what is it?

LGS is the acronym used for the friend group that started the server back in August 2018. It stands for “Le Gaming Squad”, a dated term from when using “le” even ironically was still cool. We try not to think about that. GoatWhisperer, FlyingGMM, ClapYoThighs, 06Smg05, and AbstractEgg are founding members of the server who still play, and a few more members of LGS have joined since then.

At some point, the decision was made to change the name to Elgeis (still basically pronounced as LGS) to provide a fantasy-style slant to the name and to recognize that far more people play on the server today than the original LGS crew.

How did the server get started?

LGS had many private Minecraft servers over the years with the political roleplay theme. Most of these servers, however, died within a month or so. This happened to Elgeis as well (called the “barren period” by Elgeis historians), before the server was opened up for semi-public recruiting in late November 2018, reviving it. We decided that while we wanted more people, they needed to share our values of wanting to engage in politics, and that they needed to be conducive to building a strong server community.

Why is the “vetting” system so important?

If you’re reading this, you’ve been through our vetting system or you’re going through it right now. People often wonder why we have the vetting system, which seems a bit arbitrary at times.

The vetting system is in place to allow Elgeis to remain a public server while still ensuring that only the right people are allowed on. In addition to the necessity of being non-toxic and understanding how to RP detached from the real world, the delicate environment of the server only exists because everyone understands that each country has both physical and political boundaries, and everyone respects each other’s boundaries to ensure that their own are respected in kind. Having people on the server who either don’t care about/don't understand boundaries or who don't care about the worldbuilding and RP of the server makes the server a bad place. All of the safeguards we have in place prevent the wrong people from accessing the server—and there have been many, many saves in the past.

How does RP (roleplaying) work on Elgeis?

The player is expected to put themselves in the shoes of their character, and react to the world around them from their character's point of view; this includes taking into account their character's cultural and political views, personality, but also the physical realities of the Minecraft world. The staff does not enforce any worldbuilding or metaphysical claims - nor do they refute any of them; everything here is up to the characters to decide, through their IC point of view. First and foremost, Elgeis is a form of political simulationist roleplaying - the emphasis here is on creating believable and internally consistent political narrative. The characters are mainly a vector for the simulation. As PvP and ingame conflict (strictly IC) are encouraged, and the players are pulled from a pool of many different people, Elgeis is less comparable to your average TTRPG and more to a loosely organised LARP; the rules are what keep people in check, but making space for others to RP in or collaborating with everyone else to make the most interesting narrative are not required, and rather people are encouraged to do their best to simulate their own character, and see what happens when the trajectory of their story collides with others. As a specific note, there is generally a "one character per person" expectation on the server - you can change your name, behaviour and even backstory, but it is up to you IC to convince people that you are not the same person anymore, and the admins will not interfere to force people to believe it.

What is metagaming?

Metagaming, at its core, is using means, motives or connections within the real world (where you are OOC, or out of character) to influence the gameworld (where you are IC, or in character), or vice versa. For instance, asking someone for money in real life to do a certain thing in the game would be quite egregious metagaming; another serious example would be declaring war on someone's country in the game world because you stopped being friends with them IRL. Your opinion of someone should not be influenced by your opinion of their character, and ideally, the opposite is also true. Your character should only act for the reasons they have within the game world, and you should separate yourself from the game state when not in character. There are several rules and guidelines you are expected to follow to make this smoother and easier for you and everyone else.

First of all, avoid directly lifting political entities or factions from the real world into the game world - taking inspiration is fine, but having a country that is named the same and works the same as a real world (including historical) country is considered bad form. If you are unsure about your idea, please feel free to ask the Staff first.

Secondly, don't start things you are not prepared to face IC consequences for. If you start a big war or plot and then never log on or leave the server, that is frowned upon and may, in particularly harsh cases, result in a ban. For similar reasons, do not let individuals not on the server (even former players) influence your actions on the server, and if you have temporarily left the server, don't try to engage with it through other people - the interactions should be driven by those who can take the responsibility for them.

And foremost, use Discord and channels for their intended purpose. If you are expressing intent to influence the game world, or disclosing factual information about the actual, current game world (like bunker coordinates) that is not known yet IC, that is IC discussion - don't do it in OOC channels, and even if you do, the Staff will allow it to be taken as IC. This is to prevent people from making game-changing decisions and then avoiding consequences by claiming they are OOC, and to prevent creation of unnecessary cognitive dissonance for players who would know a lot more OOC than they do IC. Of course, you may discuss IC events from an OOC standpoint, but if you are talking about IC information OOC, use only that which is widely available IC, or that which is purely OOC (for example, if there is a war and your character's has made a public statement denouncing that war, it would be perfectly fine to state that you are actually having quite a lot of fun spectating the war OOC; but if you said "my character is actually loving that war and is bullshitting everyone", this may actually count as IC evidence.

Channel Use Descriptions

The Elgeis discord has many channels for every type of discussion. Before writing in a channel, please read its description.

Introduction (out-of-character):

• #lobby is for talking to unvetted without interrupting the vetting process.
• #new-members is for vetting new members to the server. Currently only unvetted players and staff members can talk here.
• #country-info is for information on the countries of Elgeis. No discussion is permitted here—each country's leader is permitted to post one message here showcasing the country's wiki page and a short pitch on the country's leader(s), titles, and general values/government.
• #rules-and-other-info is for the rules and other information, currently being the list of our six staff members.
• #important-links is for links to important server links including, but not limited to, the server address, dynmap link, and wiki.
• #affiliated-discords is for links to each Elgeis-related discord servers.

Minecraft Discussion (in-character):

• #crafters-chat is for general discussion of stuff you do on the server, such as builds, boasting about your accomplishments, etc.
• #political-discussion is for discussion of politics on the server. This includes border disputes, political declarations that don't belong in #mc-world-news, negotiations, etc. The most recent version of the political map is usually pinned here, as are different countries' discords should you wish to join them.
• #trade is for announcing and negotiating trades. Each person gets one pinned message to advertise their trades, so let the admins know if you want to do that. You can of course edit that pinned message as your trades change.
• #crafter-memes is for memes regarding the server, be it management, history, or contemporary politics.
• #words-of-wisdom is for memorable quotes from people on the server.
• #mc-kinda-news is for news announcements that isn't of concern to the international community. Any questions about announcements in this channel should be directed to #political-discussion. Repeatedly posting unsuitable content in this channel may result in being muted in it.
• #mc-world-news is for news announcements which concern the international community. Any questions about announcements in this channel should be directed to #political-discussion. Repeatedly posting unsuitable content in this channel may result in being muted in it.

Meta Discussion (out-of-character):

• #ooc-general is for OOC commentary and discussion on in-game affairs.
• #server-management-discussion is for discussion pertaining to the server in terms of how it's run/stuff done for the server but not stuff happening on it (such as plugins, patches, maps, etc.).
• #wiki-discussion is for discussion of the Elgeis wiki primarily, as well as other meta records like maps.
• #mapmaking-mania is for discussion of the Elgeis map which is pinned in #political-discussion.
• #emojis is for any images you want to be made into emojis. Post the image and what you want it to be called, and one of the staff members will consider making it an emoji.
• #admin-announcements is for the admins to make announcements pertaining to server management.

Just For Fun (out-of-character):

• #off-topic is for non-server-related discussion.
• #face-reveal is for any real-life images. Everyone must have clothes on.
• #cool-memes is for non-server-related memes that you feel like sharing.
• #inappropriate-discussion-and-content is for stuff of a sexual/graphic nature that's worth sharing but may offend some.

Voice Channels:

• #the-bot-channel is for typing bot commands.
• #no-mic-chat is for people who do not have a microphone but would like to still participate in voice channel conversation.

Useful Links to Know

• Elgeis Wiki: (You're here right now!) A wiki for the server's rich and complex history. Everyone on the server is free to edit the wiki, but remember to keep things objective, accurate, and clearly written. Questions about the wiki should be directed to #wiki-discussion.
• Compendium of Server History: An overview of the server's rich past. It currently only runs up to December of 2018, but serves as a good record of ancient Elgeis history.
• Form for joining: Please refer to Rule #3 to find and use this form wisely.

Congratulations! You have now finished reading the Rules and Other Info writeup, and are now up-to-speed on the workings of Elgeis! If you're being vetted, you're now welcomed to go back to #new-members, let @Staff know you're finished and ask them any questions you still have. Good luck!