Article 1 is a preamble, which basically says that the Charter is meant to provide a clear yet detailed explanation of how the server is structured and run.
Article 2 says the purpose of the server, which is to let people have fun as long as they're not breaking any laws or griefing (unless there are times when griefing is allowed).
Article 3 states that upon the start of the server, a few buildings are to be built: a spawn building that has the rules posted and secures players from mobs and whatnot, a jail, a Spleef arena, a battle arena, and any relevant websites like a forum, YouTube account, Facebook page, and so on.
Article 4 gives people the right to express themselves in any way they wish without being harassed, as long as they're not trying to harass or offend others. It also has the right to fair trial, and to keep and protect whatever blocks, items, and buildings you have.
Article 5 sets the Charter as higher than any rule the mods/admins later make, explain how to change the Charter, and provides for creating a version of the Charter which is worded more simply and excludes information irrelevant to the common player.
Article 6 sets up a ranked system of players: Admins, Mods, Members, Guests, and Banned. More can be added than these.
Article 7 is the longest one, running 2.5 pages. It sets up a state system of cities, villages, and states. A village is a settlement of at least three people living in two or more houses that is connected and semi-dependent on a city. It must have a public building such as a market or meeting place and a farm large enough to sustain several people and is led by a Village Leader. It can't have a mine unless there are no other cities on the server that are nearby. It can upgrade to a city, or a city can be established itself. Cities are five or more people led by a Mayor and protected by a Sheriff. It can have a mine while connected villagers have free access to but not communal farm. A state is three or more cities and their villages allied under one government. One of the cities becomes the capitol and there has to be a statehouse. The state is led by a Governor (or Emperor, or President, or whatever they want to call it) and a Senate (or Congress, Parliament, Get Together of Dudes, etc.), who meet up in the statehouse for formal events.
I intentionally placed a system of dependency between cities and villages. Villages are meant to be where would be leaders, players, and groups learn the ropes of the game and governing, whereas cities are where the more experienced people can go to play. As a way of symbolizing and furthering this, as well as simulating real life, cities aren't supposed to have large communal farms but instead either make individual farms or rely on the village farm. Likewise, villagers must use the mine the city has to gather resources. This has a practical purpose of: it prevents the landscape from being scarred by mines everywhere. Statehouses probably wouldn't serve much function except to look pretty, but there does need to be some way of making sure states aren't haphazardly formed and dissolved. Part of my plan was for states to have their own dedicated sections on the server forum.
