Avalost

Avalost is an extremely large town, originally founded during the New Badlands era. It is in a remote location. This success is partially due to the utter lack of fees of almost any kind, making it ideal for newer players. It was founded by coupdetaut.

Founding
According to legend (coupdetaut's story) the town was founded in the post-merger Badlands, when versticles and coupdetaut stopped while on an expedition across the land. They found a village to take shelter in during the night. Eventually they decided to form a town, which attracted Mandavel as a driving force to the town's construction. The town was in an extremely remote location, halting most of its development. Around a sixth of the current residents were present during this stage of the town's history.

New Badlands
The town was saved for pasting into The Heartlands. The town was saved approximately 2 times before the changeover, preventing newer residents, such as Tex215 from constructing until after. The town was pasted into The Heartlands and began rapid construction. New structures included more homes, expansion of building spaces, and a cobblestone perimeter around the town.

The town was pasted in Schnell'en Sea (as coined by Feckyeslife) before The Mushroom Kingdom was. The towns were pasted rather close together, though their neighboring wasn't known to either party until Avalost started planning expansions. This has caused some minor arguments between the two towns, though they have been resolved. Through use of the Dynamic Map on the server website, one can see that their current Towny areas are bordering. During this stage, Mandavel's home was accidentally destroyed by the pasting of Tex215's home by rainbowZepplin. This forced him to relocate across the town, next to what became the Manor District.

Gaining Township
The town was granted township and became official on January 2, 2012 by Nnccmm when it was given its worldguard protection and warp zone. Because of the transition between worldguard and Towny, it required to be re-officialized, though this was provided for free. The town's officials put in money for the town's reclaiming, as the rest of the town had to be reclaimed chunk by chunk. This cost a little over 100k, leaving Tex215 literally flat broke and coupdetaut homeless, as he dismantled his home to sell for funds.

The town also gained the addition of a railway tunnel connecting it to the Spawn, courtesy of AGPBiohazard and Tex215. Coined the Avalost-Spawn Railway Route by Tex215, the train was semi-powered and 75% underground. It has since undergone improvements; notably a better powering system and the surface areas have been covered. The town also had been expanded and refortified, with a reinforced wall and battlements, as well as a redstone gate designed by 3ckstasy. Most of the town's current residents were present during the latter part of this stage.

The Rollback and the "Golden Age"
Avalost continued to move foward. With Towny in place and the town rapidly expanding, the town's residents started to renovate the Undercroft Mall for shops and some designs. Several shops opened as the mall improved. Shortly after this, coupdetaut resigned from his position as mayor and left the server. He has been seen sparingly and heard from even less.

On January 27th, 2012, Avalost, as well as the rest of the server was hit hard by an accidental rollback which Badlands historians now call "Direct's Derp." The rollback, while leaving the rest of the town untouched, completely erased the newest progress on the mall, as well as requiring the town to re-aquire Towny protection. The mall was re-renovated and the Towny was reestablished at no cost. The extra chunks, however, were required to be re-aquired for $1000 a piece.

Despite these shortcomings, the town pushed on. Avalost had acquired even more land, made a new district, the Residential District, and expanded the Industrial sector. More and more players came to town and by the 1st week of February 2012, Avalost was recognized as the largest town currently on the server and the largest town the server has ever seen. By the end of February 2012, it has gained 41 residents and 418 claimed chunks.

1.2 Update
By the time the 1.2 update rolled around, Avalost had amassed just over 50 residents. The 1.2 update required a map change to allow for the new biomes to generate. As an official town, Avalost's mayor, Tex215, and assistant AGPBiohazard, were given permission to enter the world early to choose a new location. AGPBiohazard, having entered the world before Tex215, pointed out a few viable places to restart. Tex215 marked it with a large glowstone "T". After the world was opened publicly, the returning town members were transported to the new location in any way possible. Few previous residents have returned to town in 1.2. The town was aligned to the plot grid to make use of Towny plot claiming system.

Peak and Decline
Avalost continued to grow until around May of 2012. In early May, the server merger had been broken and the owners, Andy and Doc, moved the server to a new and more powerful dedicated server, starting the era known as the Neo Badlands. Because the average Avalost resident was an inactive, relatively new player that played for a few days to weeks before losing interest in playing on the server or being banned, Avalost's resident numbers dropped considerably after the move. Towny had to be reinstalled, resetting all towns and their residents. Avalost stood standing, though it was generally unoccupied and empty most of the time. By June of 2012, almost all residents were absent from town, as assistants 3ckstasy and AGPBiohazard had disappeared, assistant Gasparic104 had left town to start her own, and longtime member and Mayor Tex215 had to step down as mayor due to his summer commitments. In his stead, admiralbeercakes had taken the control of the town and began several projects to improve the town for its very small population, none of which were ever completed. By the end of the summer, admiralbeercakes had become severly inactive due to his real-life commitments and just knilore and Tex215 remained. Knilore left after a certain, unspecified amount of time, and Tex215 was left as the caretaker of what used to be Avalost. By December 2012, after almost a year of living in Avalost, Tex215 finally left Avalost to establish his primary residence in Epsilon, making him the longest continuous player to live in Avalost. Tex215 maintained his old residence in Avalost up until the map changeover into the Retro Badlands, though he seldom used it for more than storage and access to the lucrative facilities in and around Avalost.

Legacy
Despite its relatively low-profile decline, Avalost is still remembered as the largest town the server had seen. It has been noted as a prospective candidate for immortalization as part of the Badlands Historical Society's conservation project. No plans for the future have been made as of yet. Tex215 also continues to refernce items he makes as "Avalost-made" items. The town's two incarnations are preserved as part of the "Time Travel" feature available to Senior Citizens and VIPs.

Characteristics
The town has many notable features, notably how it sits at the crossroads of several biomes. Its main area is the residential section, divided into plots. At the center of town, there is the Town Square, Town Hall, a Nether Portal, a train station, and a residents garden where residents can put their name and a quote on one side of a pillar. The town also has a small church that was built by Gasparic104.

Manor District
The Manor District was brought back in 1.2. This time, it is properly divided into 32x32 square blocks in line with the chunk grid. Instead of having obscure requirements to gain one, the price for a manor plot is $40,000. The majority of the plots were filled towards the end of the town's life.

Undercroft Mall
The Undercroft Mall was first created as an undercround cavern shopping center. In the New Badlands, it occupied a preexisting cavern that was pasted with the rest of the town from the previous map. In the Neo Badlands, the mall's concept was revisited and was developed under the town. It remained unfinished until the end of the map. In both incarnations of the mall, shop space was available only to residents of the town and were free of charge, though the new Undercroft Mall recieved much less attention than the first one. Tex215 is planned and designed a maximum security prison under the mall for server use. The prison was built and even featured in the first addition of the Badlands Magazine, but recieved little attention and was never configured for server use.

Industrial Section
The Industrial Sector remained a feature through both maps. It boasted several farms and generation machines and was what made the town almost completely self sufficient.

It featured:
 * 2 wheat farms, one semi-automatic and 1 manual.
 * 1 semi-automatic melon farm.
 * 1 semi-automatic and 1 manual pumpkin farm.
 * 1 egg collection bin.
 * 1 semi-automatic obsidian generator.
 * 1 semi-automatic mushroom farm.
 * 1 fully-automatic cobblestone generator.
 * 4 fishing stations.
 * 3 levels of trees.
 * The entrance to the town mines.

Residents
The town has had numerous residents, referred to officially as "Avalites". Avalost has the most residents of any town in the server. They have been noted to be unusually devoted to the town, as they will actively search out work and carry out tasks even without pay. The some of the residents and their official positions (if any) are as follows:

Asterisk (*) indicates Mayor's Aide in addition to occupational title.
 * coupdetaut - Founder
 * Tex215 - Mayor
 * Mandavel - Jarl/Apothecary*
 * 3ckstasy - Thane*
 * AGPBiohazard - "Trashy not Classy"*
 * Knilore - MineKing*
 * nbws_tempest - Chief of Engineering*
 * Smdiese - Department of Agriculture
 * Spartan1597
 * AGPPyroman - Captain of the Avalost Navy
 * Knucklefists
 * himanwatup13
 * itsmee127
 * Ironbat55
 * noobuilder98