Phoenix Empire

The Phoenix Empire is a colony that replaced the deceased Fire Nation. It is trying to hide their only queen all the time (for some reason)

History
When the Fire Nation died out, Mikey founded the Phoenix Empire in early 2020. At first their setup consisted of just a test tube, but soon also included an AC test tube portal and another test tube.

In February 2020, Mikey Bustos added an "Ant Park" (Later named the Fire Forest)- a plastic container decorated with sand, stone, sticks, and dry moss.

In March 2020, there was a pink fungi outbreak in the water of the colony's main test tube. The ants eventually moved out of the infected test tube. Later that month, Mikey Bustos added an AC ant tower to the setup which was named the Fire Fortress, and the ants moved out of the Infected test tube into the Fire Fortress.

In late March the Fire Forest, due to not having good enough ventilation, was replaced with a proper AC outworld later called Hell's Kitchen.

In April the Magma Chambers, an AC hybrid nest mini was added. This was in response to the ants starting to move into Hell's Kitchen.

In May, Mikey Bustos attempted to install a live roach feeding mechanism, where periodically small living roaches would fall into Hell's Kitchen, but this didn't work as all of the roaches ended up falling into Phoenix Empire territory, Leaving none behind to breed.

In early July, the Phoenix Empire successfully escaped their the City of Ashes through a DIY section of their setup from a previous video. The escape attempt was most likely triggered from the ants not having enough nesting space, so in response Mikey Bustos added an AC hybrid nest camponotus (from the late Lumberjack's setup) to the City of ashes (later named the Maze of Flames).

Starting in July, the AC community started to make decisions about the Phoenix Empire's future, which eventually lead to the design and construction of the Ember Islands- An Avatar themed floating islands paludarium. It was completed in August 2020, and the ants were moved in in September. The ants were moved in via 4 entry points, Mt. Juno, Mt. Venus, Mt. Minerva, and Mt. Vulcan, from Hell's Kitchen, the Fire Fortress, the Magma Chambers, and the Maze of Flames respectively.

In Late July, before moving to Antopia / Antiverse 2.0, Mikey decided that it would be too hard to move the Phoenix Empire and the Golden Empire to the new ant house and couldn't find any suitable movers, and is currently rehoming the two colonies.

Etymology
The name "Phoenix Empire" as given by the AC Family. The Phoenix Empire's origins are to be successor of the previous Fire Nation. Rises from the ashes from the same species to continue what Fire Nation had done several years ago by triumphing everyday, outliving every empire and become immortal, just like a Phoenix.

Although probably not intentionally, the Phoenix Empire continues the Avatar the Last Airbender theme started by the Fire Nation (as they were named after the Fire Nation of the Avatar world). In the aforementioned TV show, the Fire Lord, after essentially winning the 100 year war, declares himself the new Phoenix King of the new world spanning Phoenix empire. The Fire Nation is reborn from the ashes into the Phoenix Empire in the show just like in the Antiverse.

The Fire Forest
Was replaced with Hell's Kitchen in March 2020

Ember Islands
The Ember Islands is an Avatar (2009) themed floating island paludarium. The Phoenix Empire were moved into a terrarium in September of 2020.