Web Video / Ish State Experiments

-"In an ultimate social experiment..."

— Ish13, "200 Players Build a MASSIVE Civilization in Minecraft"

First released on October 16th, 2021, "200 Players Build a MASSIVE Civilization in Minecraft" by Ish13 was an alternate take to MagicGum's "100 Players Simulate Civilizations in Minecraft." Taking interest in the core concept of the aforementioned video, Ish introduced the concept of separating civilizations into separate islands, each with their own environment, landmarks, and culture, which would slowly come together and interact over the course of a week and a half of real-time. Featuring the environments of Snow, Desert, Plains and Jungle, Ish and the 200 players he gathered simulated a tale about government conspiracies, civil war, and international diplomacy, culminating in a Final Battle that would decide the fate of the world.

As Ish13's Breakthrough Hit, Ish was able to piece together two more social experiments, "200 Players Simulate Survival Island in Minecraft" and "1000 Players Simulate Prison in Minecraft". In "200 Players Simulate Survival Island in Minecraft", 200 players were stranded on an undiscovered island in the middle of the ocean, where they would have to survive by living off the land, cooperating, competing, and finally withstand the whims of the island itself. In "1000 Players Simulate Prison in Minecraft", 1000 players were instead placed in a high-security prison located on a small island, where they would be watched over by an organization of wardens and would try to survive the event via any means necessary, including treachery, forming gangs, creating contraband, or escaping the prison entirely.

Finally, on May 27th, 2023, Ish released, after a 10-month hiatus, "1000 Players Simulate Civilizations in Minecraft", where, once again, players would be divided into the 4 islands of Snow, Desert, Plains, and Jungle, but with more people and more space to build, thus allowing for many more nations. In a tale of diplomacy, unrest, conspiracies, and war, the players worked to build their civilizations and survive the conflicts that would arise.

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Tropes include:

• Confession Cam: The videos include plenty of moments where Ish talks directly to a player to hear their thoughts and plans outside the context of the game.
• Non-Linear Sequel: All of the civilization events are not in the exact same continuity. Instead, the players and their avatars appear throughout all events, while similar events reoccur during them, usually to the same or similar players.

" 200 Players Build a MASSIVE Civilization in Minecraft "

• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Solev Union experienced this when the United Sands launched a coordinated assault on the Snow base from all sides, including from the inside, which resulted in a massacre of Snow civilians and the destruction of nearly the entire Snow military, including the members of Smilechump's village.
• "Arabian Nights" Days: The desert factions both chose to adhere to this aesthetic using sandstone houses and pyramids, with the Sultanate especially setting rules in place such as daily prayers, the forbidding of pork, prescribed ways to slaughter animals, and punishments for blasphemy such as bestiality.
• Assassination Attempt: Since many of the civilizations were centrally run and thus needed an authority figure to coordinate their efforts, many of the other civilizations made attempts to kill them in order to increase their relative power:
  • The Sultan St0rmingHell was assassinated by the notorious bandit GuardianNova during one of his raids, which led to his successor Arvine succeeding to the throne.
  • Ewaj was the target of two assassination attempts. The first one failed and was defeated by his subordinates, but the second one, made by HitoriKage of Smilechump's village on the orders of Solev and Smilechump, was successful, leaving the Plains without strong leadership causing them to collapse into civil war.
• The Alliance: Kumazaki attempted to build one in his bid to overthrow Solev, but only the plains militia and the Desert agreed to join, while the rest of the factions sided with Solev. Said alliance became known as the United Sands, and would ultimately win the war and overthrow Solev like Kumazaki wanted.
  • Ironically, the Solev Union was also an alliance, this time between the Snow state, Smilechump's village, and the Jungle.
• Bestiality Is Depraved: How Arvine was exiled. He was caught in the sheep pen making out with them, which was against the rules of the Sultanate, leading to his deposition and exile.
• Bittersweet Ending: The United Sands successfully defeat Solev and his Union at the Battle of the Wooden Fence, but many innocents on both sides are killed, much of the world population died due to the many conflicts that occurred, and neither the victor nor the defeated were entirely blameless. However, the remaining people are able to rebuild from the conflict, and world peace ensues.
• Capital Offensive: In order to capture Solev and end the war as quickly as possible, the United Sands decides to focus all of their efforts in invading the snow state first. To this end, they send infiltrators and spies to sow discord and disrupt Solev's forces, while the main army concentrated itself at the base proper. This plan partially works, as most of the snow state, including the members of smilechump's village, are killed in the ensuing chaos, but Solev barely manages to escape with his life, his kingdom no more.
• Chekhov's Gag: You know that massive tower the Jungle was building that they seemingly misidentified as a "wooden fence"? Well, that's its actual name, and it's specifically designed as a stronghold for the Jungle to retreat to in times of war. Is there a war? You betcha!
  • HitoriKage makes an Implied Death Threat towards Ewaj during the section on Smilechump's village. Turns out, she meant it.
• Chekhov's Gunman: You know that person who threatened to kill ewaj when Ish first mentioned Smilechump's village? She actually makes good on it.
• Citywide Evacuation: Following their assassination on Ewaj, the entirety of Smilechump's village used an underground escape passage hidden in a bush to take all of their civilians and leave the Plains island via sea, blocking it up as they went along to avoid being tracked by the Plains Militia.
• Civil War: The Plains state quickly became divided between two separate factions, the Plains Militia, led by ewaj, and Smilechump's village. Smilechump's village believed that Ewaj and his group were too controlling, and so founded a settlement away from Ewaj's base on a forested island in the interior of the Plains landmass. Eventually, this would come to a head, as Smilechump allied with Solev after becoming aware of Kumazaki's plan, assassinating Ewaj and then fleeing to the snow state. The civil war would be decided when the Plains Militia, now part of the United Sands, invaded the snow island, massacring everyone there using their superior skill.
• The Dictatorship: The Snow state was practically, for all intents and purposes, ruled directly by Solev, who controlled all state production and had a large cult of personality. Whether or not this state was benevolent or not is never elaborated upon.
• Final Battle: The Battle of the Wooden Fence, where the forces of the United Sands besieged the remaining members of the Solev Union inside their fortress of the Wooden Fence. After a long and grueling siege with several deaths from the attackers, the attackers managed to scale the sides of the fortress and assault the troops stationed within, routing them and killing many, including Solev and 9209.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Literally. How did MagicMikey die during the assault on the volcano? "fell from a high place," a fact immediately Lampshaded by 9209. How did Solev die during the Final Battle? The exact same way.
  • Considering that both of them were major political leaders before they died, this is more than just literal.
• Insistent Terminology: The Jungle insisted on calling The Tower they were building in the forest "a wooden fence" to Ish, who notes that "It does not look like a wooden fence."
• Lava Adds Awesome: To keep the interior of the Wooden Fence safe, the Jungle people flooded the interior with lava in order to make climbing up the ladder inside much more treacherous.
• Lava Pot Volcano: The Jungle built their first base along and inside one at the center of their island, serving as their capital until they moved to Legacy's old base.
• The Migration: After dealing with MagicMikey's rebellion, the Jungle collectively decide to move their main settlement from the top of the volcano at the center of their island to somewhere on the coast. Legacy suggests moving them to his old house, which the Jungle agrees to, establishing a new village there on the coast.
• The Mole: Multiple civilizations used moles during this event to sabotage each other, such as by conducting assassinations or disrupting operations within their target nations.
  • For example, one of MagicMikey's men killed a Jungle member beneath 9209's volcano base to prepare for the coming conflict, several plains members opposed to their leadership conducted Assassination Attempts on Ewaj, with Hitori Kage succeeding, and the United Sands left spies in Solev's territory to disrupt their operations ahead of a major invasion.
• Non-Indicative Name: The gag behind the Wooden Fence, which, as Ish notes:
  "That clearly is not a wooden fence."
  • To elaborate, it's because, despite being tall like a fence, it isn't made of wood at all, though it sure does keep out people like one.
• Not Even Bothering with an Excuse: After killing some chickens a volcano member was leading through the jungle, MagicMikey, instead of coming up with some form of cover story, simply said "I was hungry."
• Shout-Out: The Jungle people, after moving to Legacy's old base, built, as one of their new buildings, a Among Us crewmate monument.
• The Siege: The aforementioned Final Battle at the Wooden Fence, where the forces of the United Sands, in order to breach the fortress, needed to climb up its sides to strike at the people within while being under constant arrow fire and lava bombardment. They ultimately managed it after one Minecraft day, allowing them to slaughter everyone inside.
• The Tower: The Wooden Fence, the Jungle's last line of defense, possessing machicolations and arrow slits designed to rain arrow fire and drop lava at enemy attackers, while the interior is flooded with lava to make the ladder up dangerous to climb. Falls in the Final Battle.
• Undignified Death: One of the members of the Plains civilization died on Day 2 by failing a boat clutch in front of multiple people.
  • MagicMikey ultimately died by failing a water bucket clutch while chasing after someone down the volcano during his assault on the base there. Even worse, his army failed to kill anyone including the person he chased.
• Universally Beloved Leader: Solev, according to a "100% Real" poll shown by Ish, had an around 93% approval rating among the Snow citizenry. Whether or not he actually had one is uncertain, but his people did fight for him until the very end.
• Watching Troy Burn: Just as Solev reaches the coast of the Snow island after its conquest, he takes a moment to look back before leaving.
• War Refugees: Following the assassination of Ewaj, Smilechump evacuated his village before the Plains Militia came to burn it down in revenge, successfully relocating his people to the Snow island as guests of honor. Shortly thereafter, the chaos in the wake of Ewaj's death caused even more people to flee the plains to escape the chaos, with several fleeing to the desert faction in addition to the snow faction.
• Wham Episode:
  • Ewaj's assassination, which completely collapses the plains state, leading to the evacuation and destruction of Smilechump's village as well as the fleeing of other refugees, severely weakening the plains and raising world tensions tremendously.
  • The United Sands' invasion of Solev's capital, where they manage to successfully disrupt Solev's operations to such an extent that the entire Snow island is quickly taken over, with most of the Plains refugees killed and Solev forced to abandon the island, leaving the Jungle as the only major member of the Solev Union left, and leaving Solev without a state to govern.
• Wham Line:
  • "The Jungle civilization didn't join because they already had a secret alliance with Solev and the snow state..."
  • "But Solev didn't merely commission one assassin..."
• Wham Shot:
  • After ewaj kills his first assassin, Ish takes time to focus the camera on one HitoriKage just behind his back.

" 200 Players Simulate Survival Island in Minecraft "

• Explosive Breeder: What happens after WoodDaddy and THAN0SCHICKEN get their pet cats together? A massive swarm of cats strewn all across their base.
• Gentle Touch vs. Firm Hand: In an amusing inversion of Solev's usual behavior, Solev was the one who was willing to keep a Gentle Touch on social issues and political disagreements, while Coloursss and his group were the ones who wanted to be tough on crime, sending out kill squads to execute those who had been accused of such.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: During the hunger event, one of the members of Coloursss's jungle base, _Thorn, decided to use his monopoly on the region's cow, and, therefore, the region's milk, to trade for large quantities of diamonds. This backfires when it is revealed that he gave the milk away for free to the Jungle leaders, causing the jungle people to get upset at them and murder him in an insurrection.
• Heroic Sacrifice: During the final event, two groups of two players chose to willingly sacrifice one of their own to the other player in order to escape the island:
  • In particular, as seconds remained on the timer, THAN0SCHICKEN asked WoodDaddy to punch him so that, when he jumped off the tower, WoodDaddy would get a kill, allowing him to escape just in time.
• I Owe You My Life: After WoodDaddy saved him from The Famine by feeding him Milk, THAN0S_CHICKEN would repay him by staying at his side and helping him out for the rest of the event, even laying down his life for him in order for WoodDaddy to escape.
• Island of Mystery: The main setting of the event: A large island in the middle of a disconnected section of ocean that was unusually divided into 4 different climate regions: Snow, Plains, Jungle, and Desert, with a large, mystical tower at its center. Every once in a while, the island's guardian spirit would protest about the presence of humans on the island, sending forth an event to menace the people of the island, culminating in it offering a way home in exchange for blood spilled.
• Mythology Gag: Legacy continues to be associated with his parrot, having spawned with one after the plane crash.
• Shout-Out: When Legacy meets another player with a parrot during this event, Ish decides to recreate the plot of the movie Rio with them.
• Wham Episode:
  • The hunger event on day 2. The first scripted event in any of Ish's civilization experiments, the hunger event caught many people off guard; while the Sanctuary managed to survive without many casualties, many smaller settlements suffered, not least of which was Coloursss' jungle base, which descended into chaos due to the merchant _Thorn monopolizing their milk production, causing many to starve.
  • The subsequent reveal that _Thorn had given away milk for free to the Jungle leadership, leading to the Jungle's collapse, the deaths of _Thorn and Coloursss, and a major terrorist incident that killed many notable Sanctuary members, causing Solev to resign.
  • The final event, where the central tower opened up to reveal a funnel down to an escape plane, but only to those who had killed another player, while those who didn't reach it in time would be struck by lightning and killed. This caused the remaining factions to descend into chaos, while those who could rush to both kill others and reach the center in time to be evacuated, destroying friendships and societies while leading to great tragedy.
• Wham Line:
  • *Coloursss blew up*
  • THANOS_CHICKEN to WoodDaddy: "Hit me"
• Wham Shot:
  • Just as Solev accepts Coloursss as a refugee, Ish focuses for a moment on a piece of TNT being lit underground.

" 1000 Players Simulate Prison in Minecraft "

• The Alcatraz: The entire prison is designed to be this, being off the coast (since prisoners are brought on in a boat) and on a tropical island, isolated from any other building, surrounded by high walls, having said walls unbreakable by prisoners unless funding runs out, and constantly patrolled day in and day out by the guards organized by Solev.
• Alone with the Psycho: During Day 1's lockdown, the player TooDrew "got locked in a cell with a suspected murderer"(RedIzLighting) by the guards, threatening to have this happen to them. It turned out fine in the end, however, as they were last seen escaping from the prison together at the end of the video.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: BoyJedi appeared to be a positive result of Jawunleashed's therapy tactics, but just as the warden was giving a speech on how everybody in the prison can be rehabilitated, BoyJedi pushed him to his death.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: One of the torture chambers in the prison's basement? Horse ASMR, where you are forced to hear the noise of a horse being burnt to death in lava.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: One of Solev's go to punishments for prisoners was to have them be moved into a number of torture rooms hidden in the prison's basement, then subjecting them to such activities as HorseASMR, being forced into a pool of lava, and being forced to fight to the death.
• Electroconvulsive Therapy Is Torture: After coming into power, Warden Solev replaced Jawunleashed's talk therapy for prisoners with this type of therapy, sitting the prisoners down between two lightning rods in order to pacify them.
  • Ish decided to help out by shooting down lightning into the therapy chair, but this accidentally killed one of the doctor's pet cats.
• Final Battle: The final sponsor, MagicGum, ordered Solev to try and recreate the first state experiment using the prison as a battleground. The prisoners, however, chose to instead attack the guards, leading to an all-out riot that was barely contained by the elite team. Then, the escapees returned to the prison armed and geared up, alongside the defecting guards, and turned the tide on the elite team and took over the building, blowing a hole in the wall to allow the rest of the prisoners to escape, who killed both Solev and MagicGum in the process.
• Gentle Touch vs. Firm Hand: What the dichotomy between Warden Jawunleashed and the leader of the elite team, Solev, boils down to. Warden Jawunleashed wanted to use "Rehabilitation over Punishment," trying to peacefully address the issues of the prisoners using the torture chambers hidden within the basement, which made him popular with the normal prisoners. However, this left him blindsided when Boyjedi pushed him off the speaking balcony after seemingly being rehabilitated, causing Solev to take control. Solev, on the other hand, was willing to use force to quell any potential uprisings, dealing harsh punishments to people such as those suspected of causing The Riot on day 2. However, while these harsh punishments were enough to keep the prisoners in check such as when the doors failed on day 3, their indiscriminate nature angered many otherwise neutral prisoners and guards, leading to guards defecting and letting out prisoners to escape into the wild, while they were armed with guard gear provided by the defecting guards. This led to the prison revolting against Solev on day 4, causing the prison to fail as Solev and the last sponsor died.
• Great Escape: Starting on day 3, the more sympathetic prison aides start organizing evacuations of prisoners they deemed innocent by personally opening up the prison walls and leading the prisoners through the back entrances. Many escape, excluding some Solev manages to ambush on their way out.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: On day 2, after enduring the chaos during yesterday's lunch, I_am_Mindless the cafeteria worker explained to Ish that the day's lines weren't as disorganized as they were previously, just before a quick brawl broke out in line in front of them.
• Misplaced Retribution: Due to being present at the head of the riot started by the El Cheese Market gang, Solev's guards wrongly assumed that ST0RMINGHELL was responsible for starting the riot, even though he was only trying to get them to not snitch and wasn't part of the riot at all. Solev promptly cracked down on the El Bozo Mafia just as hard, if not harder, than the El Cheese Market gang, disillusioning several guards and prisoners who knew that they were not responsible.
• Mythology Gag: This universe's WoodDaddy was arrested for starting "an illegal cat breeding ring," just like when he bred his and THANOS_CHICKEN's cats together on the Survival Island.
• Ominous Cube: Warden Solev replaced the naturalistic prison plots with some of these, made out of the basic materials that each plot was originally made of.
• Prison Riot: It wouldn't be a prison without somebody trying to make a ruckus:
  • On day 2, just as ST0RMINGHELL, leader of the El Bozo Mafia was trying to convince the El Cheese Market gang to not snitch, a guard walked in on their conversation. The Cheese Market gang promptly launched an all out attack on the guard and those who came to assist him, killing several before Solev's elite team was able to arrive and contain the riot by killing many of the rioters. Due to ST0RMINGHELL being present, they wrongfully suspected him of instigating the riot, imprisoning and torturing several El Bozo members alongside those from the El Cheese Market, which angered not only the members of El Bozo Mafia but also several prison guards who knew they were innocent.
  • On day 4, instead of fighting each other as Solev had ordered on behalf of MagicGum, the prisoners instead turned their anger onto Solev and his remaining guards, attacking them and forcing them back to Solev's main tower. Solev then managed to contain them with his elite team; however, the escapees joined in the attack, using MagicGum's faltering support for Solev to break in via the underfunded walls, finally defeat Solev's Elite Team. With the warden having lost control, MagicGum pushed him off of the central tower's balcony, before being tracked down and killed by some of the escaped prisoners.
• Recurring Riff: "Ode to What Could Have Been" by Pär Hagström, the instrumentation for which is head throughout all 3 major Wham Episodes throughout the video, and its full version plays throughout the Final Battle.
• The Reveal: It turns out that the prison relied on funding from the mainland to keep functioning, and with warden Jawunleashed dead, most of them had pulled out. Meanwhile, the final funder seemed to have a special request that Solev was hesitant to grant...
• Shout-Out: During the talent show on day 3, one of the prisoners decided to play a noteblock rendition of Undertale's Megalovania.
• Wham Episode:
  • The first death of a guard at the end of day 1, showing that even the prison's staff were vulnerable to violent prisoners, leading to the first lockdown and heightened tensions between prisoners and guards.
  • The riot on day 2. The large amount of guard casualties courtesy of the organized attack, the first such event in the prison so far, created massive distrust between guards and prisoners, especially of those from El Bozo Mafia, causing Solev to reopen the torture cells and causing Jawunleashed to start personally meeting with the prisoners in order to prevent more violence.
  • The death of warden Jawunleashed at the end of day 2 to BoyJedi, which led to the rise of Solev and his zero-tolerance policy, as well as a large amount of the prison funders pulling out.
  • The reveal of what the final sponsor requested to Solev: a recreation of the original State experiment with the prison divided between jungle, snow, plains, and desert, all forced to fight to the death. The prisoners subsequently launched their revolt supported by the escapees, leading to the deaths of Solev, the final sponsor, and most of the prison guards.
• Wham Shot: BoyJedi punching warden Jawunleashed off the speaking balcony.

" 1000 Players Simulate Civilizations in Minecraft "

• Bittersweet Ending: The Alliance of Democratic Nations successfully kills Elaneulo and forces his forces to surrender; however, in the process they manage to kill many innocent and surrendering soldiers who fought for him, many of whom had no part in or had justified reasons for partaking in Elaneulo's atrocities. Fortunately, the alliance eventually stops the massacre and pardons all those who survived the event, setting up a United Nations and going back to living their lives. In honor of the person who inspired them all, AFreakinTurkey, a graveyard for all of the fallen warriors was set up at the location of the now demolished Iron Torch and Elanuefort, including a statue of the Turkey himself, looking over the area for ages to come.
• Chekhov's Gun: You know that sand trap Wazz0ck built in his town? Well, guess what he used to defuse the Jungle civil war?
• Color-Coded Characters: The player's in-game nationality is represented by the color of their name tags. Red represents the plains island, blue represents the snow island, yellow represents the desert island, and green represents the jungle island.
• The Empire: The Aculon Empire, the most powerful individual state on the server. Run by Elanuelo alongside his subordinate AFreakingTurkey, it governed directly most of the Snow settlements, and used strict organization and great military power to control and manage the people.
• Final Battle: The Battle for Aculon, an all out attack on the capital and Elanuelo's main fortification, the Iron Torch.
• Final Speech: Just before Wazz0ck is executed, he gives one wherein he states that "I've made lots of mistakes," and that "Time can never be your trusted friend," before saying "It's now my time to go" just before being pushed off of the Monkey Cult's tree to his death.
• Fun with Acronyms: The ISH, International State Highway.
• G-Rated Drug: At Los Pollos Hermanos, instead of selling cocaine or meth, they instead sold sugar as a drug instead. Similarly, The Tavern, instead of using alcohol, used honey itself as a drink.
• Irony: The center island was originally added by Ish to try and create a source of conflict. Instead, it became a place of peace and unity, with many nations coexisting on the island together, culminating in the Alliance of Democratic Nations meeting there to initiate the invasion of Aculon.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Yet again. How was Wazz0ck executed? "fell from a high place" How was Elanuelo killed? "fell from a high place," which was also a tower.
• Hungry Jungle: The jungle, similar to the jungle in MagicGum's civilization event, was a decentralized, chaotic state, with multiple civilizations choosing to raid each other over limited resources, mostly due to the dense foliage hampering long-distance travel and communication. In addition, mobs would commonly spawn in and harass the Jungle people, further disrupting coordination and leading to many further deaths, mostly at the hands of creepers.
• Lava Adds Awesome: In addition to the Lava Pit below, The Aculon Empire, in constructing their replication of the Wooden Fence, also added to the original design a pool of lava on top of the Iron Torch in order to prevent enemies from jumping in from the top.
• Lava Pit: Elaneulo had Turkey executed by being dropped into one beneath his throne, though Word of Saint Paul states that this was an embellishment.
• Meaningful Echo: Just before Wazz0ck gets executed, he laments that "time can never be your trusted friend." What are the opening lines of the song that plays during The Battle for Aculon? "Time can never be your trusted friend..."
• Mythology Gag: One of the groups living on the plains state was a cult of capitalists who wanted to spread the ideology of capitalism to all of the lands, just like the Invisible Hand from the prison experiment. In fact, according to Word of Saint Paul, they are the Invisible Hand.
• Poor Communication Kills: Due to in-game communication being restricted to within 100 blocks, many misunderstandings occurred, some of which blossomed into all-out wars.
  • The Jungle was incredibly hard to govern due to this trope, as the dense foliage made getting close to any other player a hard task, leading to many skirmishes over resources, conflicts between states, and an all-out Civil War between the two largest Jungle factions.
  • The Plains also almost went to war over sidefall's attempts to reach out to the Snow state, as a propagandist spread rumors that sidefall was gearing up for war. In fact, sidefall was only reaching out in order to better protect her people, while they were never planning to wage war. In the end, The Tavern was able to negotiate a peace treaty and alliance between HorusCrowned and sidefall, laying the foundation for the Alliance of Democratic Nations.
• Public Execution:
  • Occurred to Xellious after he was caught trying to plant TNT below the Aculon warehouse, supervised by AFreakinTurkey himself.
    AFreakinTurkey: By attempting to blow up the Quartermaster's House, Xellious betrayed our people and for this, he must die. Glory to Aculon!
  • Also happened to Wazz0ck after he set off his sand trap beneath the Sea Peoples and Seth's nation when their negotiations on his territory fell apart. Wazz0ck turned himself in and let the executioner finish him off.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Elanuelo, emperor of the Aculon Empire, constantly feared that his people were plotting against him, so he decided to fix that and make his kingdom the most united nation through controlling means, including spying on his own people and ruling with an iron fist. Even his right-hand man AFreakinTurkey was not spared, with Elanuelo killing the duke both out of envy of his popularity and a paranoiac belief that Turkey was plotting to usurp his power for himself. The result: majority of the other nations, including those who formed the Alliance of Democratic Nations, actually plotted to rise up to end his reign of terror and demolish his empire immediately upon hearing of Turkey's death at the emperor's hand.
• Sequel Escalation: You know how the previous civilization events only had 200 people. This one has 1000, all on an expanded map, with even more factions to watch interact, and even more people to get familiar with.
• Shout-Out: The name of DripChicken's chicken (and G-Rated Drug) stand? Los Pollos Hermanos.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: When Ish comments to AFreakinTurkey about how many settlements the Aculon Empire had across the snow island, AFreakinTurkey swears that none of it was built by slaves, which causes the music to cut out and the camera to awkwardly linger on him for a Beat. (Turkey was telling the truth, although as other videos reveal, there was some discontent in Aculon about how people were being made to build what the higher-ups wanted rather than their own build projects.)
• The Tower: The Iron Torch, the Aculon Empire's last line of defense, based on the Wooden Torch from season 1. Once again possesses machicolations and arrow slits designed to rain arrow fire and drop lava at enemy attackers, while the interior and roof this time are both flooded with lava to make climbing over and/or inside the base much harder. Falls in the Final Battle yet again, though this time via subterfuge.
• Team Switzerland: The Tavern, a group solely dedicated to running a tavern, chose to not be involved directly in any wars between different nations, including between Aculon and the Alliance of Democratic Nations.
• Truce Zone: In addition to remaining neutral, The Tavern often mediated diplomacy between different factions (such as when the plains almost broke out into war) while selling their beer to whoever was visiting, including during the battle for Aculon.
• Wham Episode:
  • davarit's attempted assassination attempt on ST0RMINGHELL, which resulted in him, the sultan, and saparata, the leader of Theria, dying in a series of related incidents that collapsed the Sultanate, sent Zombta into exile, and allowed Theria to become the dominant desert faction.
  • AFreakinTurkey's death at the hands of Elanuelo and the subsequent purge of his supporters which caused the Alliance of Democratic Nations to declare war on him and bring their full might to bear upon the Aculon Empire and its associates.
• Wham Shot: Just as Elanuelo aims his bow from the Iron Torch's overhang, somebody runs up from behind and mines the floor out from under him.
• Zero-Approval Gambit: Wazz0ck, after the peace talks between SethHyphen and yeetspeak broke down, decided to use his trap to focus their grievances on him first so as to delay the inevitable war within the jungle. Ultimately, after evading capture for a while, he willingly turns himself in, and is executed. While it did allow for reconciliation to happen eventually, the factions still went to war due to siding with opposing factions during the Aculon war.