Benjamese Empire
 Benjamese Empire
| |
| |
| About | |
|---|---|
| Leadership |  BenjaminBsuper
|
| Headquarters | BenEm Meeting Center |
| Founded | 19th March, 2017 |
| Public? | No |
| Status | Inactive |
The Benjamese Empire (or BenEm for short) is the collective name for all the areas BenjaminBsuper and his crew use to build their cities on. In 2018, the Empire grew to be one of the biggest groups in Freedonia, with a community of hundreds of players. Since then the entirety of the BenEm has fallen into inactivity, but it is remembered as the greatest (and only successful) empire in the server's history, with many legendary players helping it.
BenEm Town Classification
The Empire has a classification system for settlements and territories (an almost full list is at Category:BenEm Ranking System):
- BenEm Hamlet
- Any settlement that is too small to count as anything below.
- Examples: LittoilLand, Boat
- BenEm Village
- A settlement with a few houses, simple infrastructure and barely any shops.
- Examples: Merchilles, Isfiskholt
- BenEm Town
- A settlement which houses several players, shops and has advanced infrastructure.
- Examples: Pallet Town, Numington Town
- BenEm City
- A large settlement which is big enough to have a self-sustaining population. It should have historical importance, advanced infrastructure and some kind of a skyline.
- Examples: Tussenstad, Snaketown
Areas
Batavia
Batavia is the name for the BenEm mainland. It was the centre of BenEm activity:
BenjaminStad (Capital City) - The historical and biggest centre of BenEm. Highly urbanised.
KSCity - A former competitor of BenjaminStad.
Tussenstad - An integral part of BenEm.
TwanStad - A territory without any residential buildings.
Merchilles - Despite it's size, this town lives with a status of Batavia's architecture centre. Located in the desert outback of Batavia.
Oldville - Located right next to South Tussenstad, its architecture is mostly medieval.
Isfiskholt - A small town situated on the frozen sea near BenjaminStad.
Winterstad - A small village that lies under the jurisdiction of Tussenstad.
BearTown - A town with large houses and a rustic style, it is located very closely to Batavia
Exclaves
Enclaves started to appear when more and more people joined BenEm:
Grifftopia - This major architecture centre has an unique system of "poor" and "rich" districts.
Greenhaven Village - Despite being a separate town, this town with sad history is a part of Grifftopia's area.
Barendrecht - This town is having a strange case of BenjaminBsuper getting town ownership from a banned player through another person.
Snaketown - The BenEm centre in Forrrest. The most active town of the Forrrest agglomeration. De facto capital of the empire until the headquarters in BenjaminStad is completed.
Pallet Town - This town has a very messy layout, but it attracted attention thanks to it being mostly residential.
Numington Town - Former center of Forrrest activity. Since then it became inactive.
Silver Lake - This town is very unique, because it successfully attracted people during player invasions.
New Snak City - 
snakyman's new city, which is situated on chunk borders.
The UnderLands - A settlement founded by 
tyhdefu that's almost entirely underground.
LittoilLand - A city, I guess
Merchilles - A small town made by 
Mer28.
Boat - A town on a boat.
Urbanism
The Empire, as an once extremely active community, houses a lot of impressive builds. A lot of these builds are very tall: 23 of them are taller than 50 meters, and 7 of those are higher than 100 meters.
The Batavian area of BenEm is highly urbanised, with many high structures. BenjaminStad alone has 9 towers over 50 meters high, of which 3 are taller than 100 meters. This amount of high rise builds is very high relative to other cities. Batavia has 15 towers above 50 meters, of which 5 are taller than 100 meters:
Highest Batavian buildings
Over 100m high:
- Turn_Off Tower (BenjaminStad) -
Turn_Off - Brandarix Tower (Tussenstad) -
hprick - New Friends Housing Hotel Park (BenjaminStad) -
ADHD_Autism - Tokaido Tower (BenjaminStad) -
Avanlance - KSCity Government Building (KSCity) - BenjaminBsuper,
mk59apr and 
Edelstadt (WIP)
50-100m high:
- BenjaminStad Hotel (BenjaminStad) - Turn_Off
- BenjaminBsuper's pride (BenjaminStad) - BenjaminBsuper
- TwanStad Cobble Tower (TwanStad) -
TwanVanDijk - Kaasa de Hotel (BenjaminStad) - ADHD_Autism
- Kaasa Brown (BenjaminStad) - unknown builder
- Icky's Castle (BenjaminStad) -
ickyacky - B.U.T.T. (Big Ugly Tower - Tussenstad) - several builders
- Fleetgate Tower (BenjaminStad) - hprick
- Balcony Building (KSCity) - mk59apr
- Edelweiss Corp HQ (KSCity) - Edelstadt
Most exclaves are less urbanised. They have lower, yet impressive structures:
Highest buildings in Exclaves
Over 100m high:
- Diamond Salami (Snaketown) -
ScarClaw72 (formerly) 
TECHNOFIZZ1406's Deluxe Plot (Snaketown) - TECHNOFIZZ1406
50-100m high:
- Snakyman Holding A Giant Salami (Snaketown) - snakyman
- Madison Square Garden (New Snak City) - snakyman
- Freedonia Road Co. HQ (New Snak City) - snakyman
- "SNAKE SEA STOP" (Snaketown) -
Ultoris - Tower of
6stooges (Pallet Town) - 6stooges - Chest Tower (Silver Lake) -
Freeman77 - The Zirconium Observatory (Snaketown)-
MCTogs - BenEm Meeting Center (Snaketown) (from lowest point of complex to highest point)
Infrastructure
The Benjamese Empire is well known for its underground and aquatic infrastructure; The BenEm leaders, especially 
IvanLeshev, BenjaminBsuper, and hprick, put a lot of work in to improve public transportation throughout the BenEm area. Freedonia Road Co., an affiliate of the empire, also helped build connections between the cities, predominately in the northwest.
Tunnels
- Ginza Tunnel
- A tunnel to cut time off the Boat Route from Enjoku Route to the BenEm junction: this tunnel, built by IvanLeshev and hprick, cuts right through a hill to prevent issues with the nearby private property. The tunnel is 5 meters wide. It's decorated with the colors of the BenjaminStad flag and lighted with redstone torches.
- Trans-Vesitäysi Tunnel
- A tunnel that goes under Lake Vesitäysi to connect North and South Tussenstad
- Tavernia Tunnel
- Another tunnel to cut time off the boat route. It's a lot shorter than Ginza Tunnel, and unlike Ginza, it's built on an askew line. It's directly followed by a canal between two hills. Decorated with spruce wood and lighted by redstone torches. Also built by hprick and IvanLeshev.
- BenjaminStad Tunnel System
- A pedestrian subway system to make different parts of BenjaminStad accessible. This tunnel system is still being expanded, BenjaminBsuper being the main person working on it.
- Gotthard Tunnel
- Another project by hprick and IvanLeshev, made to connect two large waters, finishing off the BenEm Boat Route.
- Holland Tunnel
- A small tunnel that cuts through a hill at the most northern part of the BenEm boat route.
Canals
An important part of the boat route are ice canals; Without these, boat travel to the BenEm junction would be impossible.
- Northern Canal
- This is the biggest canal of the BenEm boat route. It cuts right through a giant ice lake. Mainly built by BenjaminBsuper.
- Southern Canal
- Made by hprick and BenjaminBsuper, this is the second biggest canal, which also cuts through ice. This canal cuts through a giant ice lake to go straight to the BenjaminStad harbour, to connect to the next canal system:
- BenjaminStad Harbour Canal
- This canal, built by BenjaminBsuper, connects the harbour to the inner lake of North Tussenstad and the Sugarcane Shores park, directly to connect to the Fraffyard tunnel.
Bridges and boardwalks
Crossing water is important. When it's not done with a tunnel, like the Trans-Vesitäysi Tunnel, it's done with a bridge.
- Banshee Boardwalk
- An experimental build by hprick: an elevated walkway parallel to the wall of an ancient castle. This walkway is a part of the road from Tussenstad to the nearby Nexus hub. Named after a Mario Kart track.
- Great Northwestern Highway
- Although it is not officially part of BenEm, it connects many BenEm Towns in the Northwest to the main road system in central Freedonia. There are many beautiful bridges built by
bloo_noodle across the oceans, and some cool bridges built around Forrrest by snakyman. To this day, it still functions as a way of getting from Forrrest to surrounding areas.
History
Beginning
May 19th - September 7th, 2017
The history of Benjamese Empire starts with the founding of KSCity and steep growth of BenjaminStad in winter and early spring of 2017. These 2 cities formed the Benjamese Empire after they allied on the 19th of May, 2017. One of the earliest Benjamese Empire newcomers was hprick, who founded Isfiskholt shortly after.
Ivan and Hprick Join
September 2017
After quitting Clifftonville and time of simple existence, one of most important members of Benjamese Empire, IvanLeshev with the help of BenjaminBsuper decided to urbanise the north wilderness of the Benjamese Empire with founding of Tussenstad, the second most powerful city in the Empire. Ivan invited hprick and 
Appelsaus_ into his town. Thanks to this powerful new friendship, they completed many projects for the Benjamese Empire. In addition to that, Appelsaus_ became part of the Benjamese Empire staff. 
NHC_THK also added some land when NHC_THK sold Barendrecht to Benjamin. These outward expansions marked the start of BenEm's great foreign influence.
The Outer Expansion
October - December 2017
The empty lands, near the desert and over the icy plains, were good places to expand into. Mer28 started his town Merchilles in the area. To this day Batavia hasn't expanded outwards any further, only growing within its own borders. Around this time, cities outside of Batavia started to join the empire, the first ones being Greenhaven-Grifftopia and Snaketown, creating the Exclave territories.
Stagnant Growth
January - April 2018
After slightly less than a year of constant growth in the Empire, concentrated in Tussenstad and new small towns in the Batavian area, the growth of the Empire stagnated in January of 2018. This was mostly caused by hprick moving out of Tussenstad to live at his new project at the time, Port Lochrainn. With hprick and IvanLeshev helping him in his new project, the two most active builders of the Empire were gone. Nonetheless, a lot of improvements were made in the Batavian area here and there, such as pixel art in South Tussenstad and the refurbishment of KSCity.
Due to 
KS_Life leaving the server, BenjaminBsuper bought the KSCity from him.
International Conflicts
May 2018
In early 2018, a small town named Lemonaid Town appeared next to Snaketown. Lemonaid actively blocked off Snaketown and acted aggressively to the Snaketown leaders, so the city and its BenEm allies saw this as an act of war. As the conflict escalated, BenEm leaders started to get involved in actions against the leaders of Lemonaid Town, which resulted in a tension with 
1posa1 and his New American Empire. BenEm emerged victorious, with Lemonaid Town being incorporated as a territory, and many BenEm leaders helping to dismantle it. This event also led to the creation of the EPU, which caused massive problems for several BenEm cities (most notably Snaketown and BenjaminStad).
Marinian Era
May 18th - July 22nd, 2018
On the 18th of May, 2018 hprick joined 
kittyfreak500 to help build Sandmore. Sandmore was in its earliest stages, being founded only the day before, thus hprick joining skyrocketed Sandmore's growth and started BenEm involvement in the area. Therefore, the 18th of May marks the beginning of the Marinian Era. Over the next few weeks Sandmore expanded heavily as the centre of the Kingdom Of Marinia, with several new towns such as Watermore and Conquest Island. Since Sandmore was part of the Benjamese Empire at the time, this era marks great growth for the Empire again, after a period of stagnation and complicated conflicts.
hprick eventually moved back to BenjaminStad in late June, due to the rapid development of high rise buildings there. More information about the subject is on the BenjaminStad wiki page.
The Kingdom of Marinia officially left BenEm on the 22nd of July 2018 due to a dispute between BenEm leaders, marking the end of Marinian Era.
Shrinking of the Empire
July 23rd - September 30th, 2018
On the 23rd of July, 2018, Tussenstad and Isfiskholt decided to leave the Empire, just like the Kingdom Of Marinia had done the day before. The independence of Tussenstad and Isfiskholt took away 2 of the Empire's key contributors, hprick and IvanLeshev. With this loss, Oldville was founded just to the east of Tussenstad. Oldville functioned as a BenEm outpost on the lake to the east of Tussenstad.
On the 30th of September IvanLeshev and Appelsaus_ decided to rejoin BenEm and Tussenstad. Later this day, hprick agreed to rejoin Isfiskholt as well, completing the reunification of the Empire.
Forrrestian Era
October 1st 2018 - April 2019
After the incidents in Batavia, central BenEm didn't see any major growth. In this time, Oldville saw the most substantial Batavian expansion, but it eventually stagnated. Some progress was made on downtown KSCity every now and then, but no expansions were made to Batavia. In these times, most of BenEm's contributors had been working abroad or simply didn't contribute at all. Much of the activity of the active BenEm members slowly shifted to the Forrrest area, since Snaketown was growing a lot at the time in the aftermath of the Lemonaid Town incident. This influx of the central forces of the Empire propelled Snaketown into a period of growth. This growth of the Snaketown area steadily continued for months, making 
Snakyman one of the major forces in the Empire. This shift of activity also made infrastructure construction a main export product of the Empire, mostly thanks to the Freedonia Road Co. The FRC helped make connections in/around northwestern Freedonia, linking many cities together and expanding the influence of the empire. This company also turned New Snak City into a useful city for the Empire. This is seen in activity of BenEm workers like hprick shifting to New Snak City.
Expansion of the centre
May 2019
In late April and early May of 2019, the idea of a general Benjamese Harbor north of BenjaminStad was created by hprick. The plan was approved, and IvanLeshev together with hprick started working on it rapidly. After a week the bulk of the area was finished. The progress on the harbour sparked a lot of innovation in the entire area and soon 
johngi and hprick started working out plans to construct an open square in downtown BenjaminStad with connections to the new harbour to make the centre less chaotic.
After the expansion to the harbour, more infrastructure projects were started. Improvements were made to roads, bridges and tunnels.
Death
May 2019 - Present
The majority of once active BenEm contributors have stopped playing, for example BenjaminBsuper, hprick, 
Johngi and Edelstadt. snakyman was banned (but would later be unbanned). The discord seems to have been deleted. At this point, BenEm died. BenEm is known by few; they are known the most productive empire in the server's history, and one that had great bonds between the leaders, and fought fiercely against its enemies.
BenEm Leaders
Ranks in the empire:
- Emperor: head of the empire.
- Noble: Generally a leader of a city in the empire, but with extra authority due to great contributions to the empire.
- Leader: a mayor/leader of a city in the empire.
There are a few other various roles listed below.
Leaders
- Mayor of BenjaminStad
- Founder and Emperor of BenEm
- Mayor of Tussenstad - Key contributor of Tussenstad
- Noble
- Mayor of Tussenstad
- Noble
- Mayor of Tussenstad and Isfiskholt
- Noble
- Mayor of KSCity
- Leader
- Mayor of Grifftopia
- Leader
- Mayor of TwanStad
- Leader
- Mayor of Merchilles
- Leader
- Mayor of Greenhaven Village
- Leader
- Mayor of Snaketown and New Snak City
- Noble
- Senate President, manager of Shatlantis
- Mayor of Pallet Town
- Leader
- Mayor of Numington Town
- Leader
- Mayor of Silver Lake
- Leader
- Mayor of The UnderLands
- Leader
- Ambassador of New Kanal Town
- Mayor of Winterstad
- BenEm City Planner
- Ambassador of the Empire
- Mayor of LittoilLand
- Leader
- Mayor of Boat
- Leader
- Founder of BearTown
- Leader
BenEm Meeting Center
The BenEm Meeting Center, AKA Shatlantis, is a facility in Snaketown that once had a room for every BenEm staff member. It now is the home of the Bedrocco Empire. It once functioned as a meeting centre, embassy and a place for leaders to hang out. There is a large dome above the common room, and a meeting room is adjacent to it. It is nicknamed Shatlantis because it is governed by BenjaminBsuper who has IBS (also because when making the dome it looked like there was poop all over it - see image below). This functions as the empire’s main headquarters because the massive BenEm capital complex in BenjaminStad was never completed.
It was expanded upon hugely in late 2018. The Waluigi Meeting Room was finally completed, giving the complex a use. The main expansion was the Freedonia General Assembly, which is a huge meeting place for development board meetings and Senate meetings.
Since then the complex was fitted to suit the needs of the United States of Bedrocco, all former BenEm staff rooms were repurposed except for hprick's room.
Shatlantis being built
Shatlantis dome when completed
