Lahti
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Lahti is a town located on the shore of the lake Päijänne in the southern parts of Finland. It is the capital of Tavastia. The town is the oldest town and one of the largest towns in Finland. The town has formerly been known by the names of Vantaa and Lahdenpohja.
History
The early days
The founder and the current mayor of the town, MaxFI saw the EarthMC trailer on YouTube in March 2019, but he didn't get to play it for a few days, since the server was set to donators only. The server was reopened on March 15, and MaxFI joined the server at 14:07 Finnish time. He spawned near the coast of western Africa and sailed to Finland. However, he didn't join the server again until a month later on April 20th, when he built his first house in the area of the current town. Coincidentally, at the same time the nation of Greater Finland was starting to form. A founding member of Kekkoslinna (The capital of Greater Finland) Dementikko created the lake Päijänne by hand on April 22nd, causing the house to be sunken in the lake. On the next day, April 23rd, MaxFI dried the part of the lake where his house was by using cobblestone. But by the very next day, April 24th, that part of the lake had been filled with water again and his house had been demolished, with all the materials put in a chest. This forced him to build a new house on the shore of the lake. There is nowadays a memorial on the house's place.
Founding of the town and the Finnish nation
By April 25th, MaxFI had collected 64 gold, which was the price for creating a town. The town was founded on the same day, at 17:46 Finnish time. The very next day, on April 26th, the nation of Greater Finland was founded. Vantaa joined the nation on the same day and was the fourth town to join, thereby being one of the founding towns of the nation.
Fast growth
After the founding of the town, the first things to be built apart from the house were a flag of Finland, the farm and the Town Hall. The first new resident to move to the town was _JNX on April 28th. On the next day, April 29th, 3 new residents moved in. At the peak of the growth on May 1st, (the date of vappu, a national holiday in Finland) 7 new residents moved in on the same day. The growth was so fast that the town didn't have enough gold to provide plots for all of the newcomers. On April 30th, Vantaa was connected with a branch to the national iceroad/metro network of Greater Finland, with a station in the town. On May 3rd, _JNX and shapcott were named as the councillors of the town. During the Tampere Crisis in late May, during which Tampere was kicked from Greater Finland and joined Terra Mariana, Vantaa took a refugee, pipari11, and after the crisis another, Luunas, because his stuff had allegedly been stolen in Tampere.
Decline
Vantaa started to decline around late May because most of the new residents only visited once or twice, and nearly all of the active residents moved to other towns. This caused the town's population to shrink from 18 to 5 in just a few weeks. This technically made Vantaa a one man-town, though there have almost always been other people registered as residents. In late June, a demolition project of incomplete abandoned houses begun. On June 27, s1s1l1sko was named the new mayor, because MaxFI tried to take over Szczecin, where the mayor was going to be deleted in the next days. MaxFI didn't get the town and returned as the mayor of Vantaa two days later on June 29.
New era
On July 26 the new Päijänne Tunnel was built, connecting Vantaa and the lake Päijänne to the Baltic Sea, therefore easening transportation of goods. On 10 September a beacon was installed under the lake, being the second in Finland after Tampere. On 23 November, an iceroad connection to Lutkula was built.
Annexation of Porvoo
Porvoo was a seaside town located close to Vantaa. It was founded on February 3 2019, and like in real life, it was one of Finland's oldest towns. The long-time mayor of the town was Myyreli. The town originally was a part of the nation of Norrland, but joined Greater Finland as soon as it was founded. The town then experienced large population growth, but soon fell into inactivity. Porvoo was notably visited by the Russian youtuber Канал Кейна (Kanal Keina) in a video released on 13 May (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7lTQo_aKBk, starting from 12:00).
MaxFI had for long in his mind to annex the town of Porvoo, and it was originally supposed to disband between June 27-June 29. He had even claimed land to the town's border. However, even after the mayor had been removed from the town, he as well as the last resident came back online on June 26, just before the town was about to fall. This delayed MaxFI's plans by nearly 2 months. On August 22, the town finally disbanded, and was annexed by Vantaa on the same day. This officially made the town a coastal town. On 5 September a new metro branch to Porvoo was built from the Vantaa main station. For many months, Porvoo was pretty much in the same state as it was when it fell, except for the iceroad and an above ground-road built from Vantaa. Lately some work has been done, including building an iceroad bridge to FixedMines in Terra Mariana and renovating griefed and incomplete houses.
Renaming
MaxFI renamed the town from Vantaa to Lahdenpohja on January 16, 2020. As the town's location wasn't accurate to the city with the same name in real life, he had for some time considered to rename it. He came up with the name Lahdenpohja (The bottom of the lake) because it reflects the town's physical location. However, in real life there's a town with the same name in the region of Karelia which Finland lost to the Soviet Union in the 40's. For some time this was the main reason why he didn't rename the town. However, he later heard that his town would possibly be the future capital of the nation and found out that there's a village called Lahdenpohja in the town's real life area. He thought that if the town would become the nation's capital, it would need a more "neutral" name. Lahdenpohja now seemed even better of an option since of the real village. The flag, which is based on the coat of arms of the real life Vantaa, was kept though.
Joining Finland
On February 2, MaxFI had enough of his nations inactivity and decided to join the active nation of Finland. The decision was a bit hard because of his high rank in the nation and its long history. MaxFI probably could have even easily become the nation leader. But he thought that it would be useless to have two nations in Finland and changed his mind about leading the nation. Another reason was that Finland's capital, Jyväskylä, was located right next to Lahdenpohja.
The town was renamed again to Lahti on 12 July after the city in the town's real location, because the mayor MaxFI thought the current name was too long.
On 11 March 2021, construction work for a large new district in the southeastern part of the town begun. In the first phase wide avenues will be built. This requires demolition of old houses and flattening of terrain. The plan is to build a European-style city district. The area was completed during April and a large new area for plots has also been built north of Porvoo.
On 25 April 2021, Lahti turned 2 years old. On the same day, the town also reached 20 residents for the first time ever, making it officially a city.
Founding of Tavastia
On 10 October 2021, the nation of Tavastia was founded in Lahti.
Attractions
The Museum of Lahti
The museum is the oldest remaining building in the town's northern part. It was originally named as the town hall, but the title was given to the large house next to it in March 2020. The museum contains flags and maps from raiding trips and a map of southern Finland. On November 9, 2019 an underground expansion of the museum was opened.
The ancient steps
Somebody built a small house on top of this hill and steps leading to it before MaxFI's arrival to the area. The house had been griefed and the ruins were later demolished by the town, but the steps still remain today. They are the oldest known structure in the town's northern part and a prime example of ancient ruins in Finland. On 17 February 2020, MaxFI found a hidden basement deep under the hill. It was probably built by the same person who built the house. On 23 September 2021, a memorial was built on the site using oak wood, the same material the original house was built of.
The road through a tree
This is the only road that goes through a tree in Finland and probably the entire server.
The Great Finnish Flag
Located in the center of the town, this is the largest Finnish flag on the entire server. On its place, there was a much smaller Finnish flag built during the town's beginning, but the flag was rebuilt on July 21 2019.
The museum ship Sampo
The historical museum ship Sampo sits in the town's harbor. It's unknown how it has been transported there, since the center of Lahdenpohja is only connected to the sea by a small tunnel.
Joergen #2 and Water Sheep
PewDiePie's beloved former pets Joergen #2 and Water Sheep have come back to live on EarthMC, with Lahdenpohja as their home. Sadly Water Sheep passed away on an unknown date of March 2020, but he will never be forgotten.
Lahti Castle
On July 29 construction of the castle began on top of the town's highest hill, west of the town centre. However, for months, the only thing that had been built was its base. The castle truly started taking shape on November 17. Outside work on the castle was completed on December 28 2019. An expansion was completed on January 26 2020. The tower built on the main building's roof was completed and the Finnish flag was raised on January 28. The castle is by far the largest building in the town. The new castle base with large plazas and new towers was completed on 3 April 2020. The new area also hosts a garden, which is in the western side of the castle.
Statue of MaxFI
MaxFI built a giant statue of himself on December 6th, the same day he slightly changed his skin. The statue is located on the shore of lake Päijänne.
Finland Tower
Finland Tower is the tallest building in the town and one of the tallest in Finland, at 89 meters tall. The tower was completed on 30 January 2020. It was mainly built with white glass blocks and blue stripes, symbolizing the flag of Finland. The tower has an iceroad station connected to the international iceroads. It also hosts the town's central FTN (Finnish Transport Network) station.
Porvoo lighthouse
The Porvoo lighthouse is believed to be the oldest standing building in the town's entire area and among the oldest in Finland, being built in February 2019. Even though it's very simple, being built mostly with cobblestone, it's an iconic landmark of the town of Porvoo.
Radio Towers
The Radio Towers pay a homage to the iconic radio masts in the real-life Lahti. Located in the new residential district of the town, they are 80 meters tall each. Construction began on April 2, 2021 and was completed on April 4.
Lake Tower
The Lake Tower is the tallest building in Finland, at 112 meters tall. It is located on the shore of Lake Päijänne, on top of the entrance to the Päijänne Tunnel. Construction began on September 27, 2021 and was completed the following day.
Transportation
Lahti has a whopping total of 5 separate ice road stations, each on a different level. Thanks to them the town is well connected to the rest of Europe. The stations can be divided into the old stations accessed from an elevator next to the Museum and the new stations located at the Finland Tower.
Old stations
The first station of the town was the Greater Finnish iceroad station. It was opened on April 30th, 2019 and is located at the Y level 15. From this station you can access most of the Greater Finland's cities like Tampere and Kekkoslinna. You can go all the way to Murmansk on the Arctic coast.
The second station was opened on 23 November 2019 and is located at the Y level 2. It connects to the town of Lutkula (later Joensuu) which is now called Varkaus. Through there there is a connection to the former capital of Finnmark, Inari.
New stations
The International Ice Bridge (Later named Allegro after the bullet train between Finland and Russia) was built completely by MaxFI and opened on 13 January 2020. It was located at the Y level 126 and was 1,3 kilometers long. Through here you can access Russia and many other parts of Eastern Europe. On 23 April, 2021 the ice bridge was moved underground and the station at the Finland Tower was closed. The new station is located between the Radio Towers at the Y level 20.
The FTN station was opened on 16 February 2020. It is located at the Y level 35. FTN was supposed to become a large network in Finland but for now the development on it has been halted and it only connects to Jyväskylä and Helsinki. The Lahti Castle station was added to FTN on 5 March 2021.
The ice bridge between Porvoo and FixedMines was built by J1K and it opened on 27 December 2019. It was later extended to Lahdenpohja on 5 April 2020. The station is located at the Y level 66. At FixedMines you can access the Connect TM network that goes to Terra Mariana and Sweden.
Business
Jumbo store
On July 27, a shop with the name Jumbo (referring to an irl shopping mall in Vantaa) was opened in the city's metro station. The company's factories are located in Lahti and its main products are pork chops, villager products and XP bottles. On October 11, a second branch was opened in Mergopolis, Oceania. (later Solomon State). However, when the sign shops came back up on December 6, the location was moved to Caracas, Venezuela because of the local leader Ian's spawnkilling. On 14 Februrary 2020, the company bought a new plot in Finland's capital Jyväskylä and the shop was moved there when the sign shops came back, with the location in Lahti getting closed. The shop was later moved to Helsinki because the capital and /n spawn of Finland was moved there. The Caracas store was also temporarily closed due to the Venezuelan war. The store is now located in Caracas because the /n spawn was moved to Jyväskylä where the former store had been demolished. The /n spawn is now back in Helsinki but MaxFI has lost access to the former store there.
Notable people
- MaxFI, the founder and the current mayor of the town.
- shapcott, a former councillor of the town.
- _JNX, a former councillor of the town.
- s1s1l1sko, a former mayor of the town.
