A Short Treatise on the Early History of Illyriad

Spheniscidae wrote: John Louis wrote: ...NC became extremely effective and proceeded to purge Illyriad of heretics hungry for war wherever they could find them...  Who gave NC the right to purge "heretics" from Illy? ...

Sorry John Louis, nice one sided story but I miss research into the past of Illy, the real past.

A nice tale, but a bit too beautified imho, because not only you cannot attribute everything good on one side only, but telling the tale like that actually usurps the effort of various other alliances through the time that helped fulfill that newbie friendly environment in illyriad, which is not a good thing to do ... 

So, if you do not mind, I'll put a soundtrack to the tale to balance things out :

http://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=_hMSzggJMJE

And this is something that both sides of any conflict, and any time, should listen to 

Edited by Deranzin - 20 Feb 2014 at 09:16

A Short Treatise on the Early History of Illyriad (according to John Louis)

I want to start by stating that this post is my creation and mine alone. It is not endorsed by NC or H? or anybody else. These are my views, however, and I believe those who have ears will hear and those who have eyes will see (yet many will remain both deaf and blind) – others may even agree with what I say but not vocalize their agreement for fear of reprisal or even because they just do not care what others think anymore. There will also be some who are not deaf or blind yet will mock, ridicule or even try to discredit this post – nothing can be done to prevent that (they have their own agenda).

In any event, here goes:

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far far away, Illyriad was created by the forces that be. Many came to populate the lands. Slowly the many peoples of Illyriad settled down and built up their cities. At the same time, those who shared similar views gathered together and created alliances which reflected their political ideologies. Players and alliances alike prospered and grew, and this was a good thing.

As time went on certain players and alliances started to develop at a faster pace than others. Eventually, bigger alliances had the clout to dominate this game and force their will on others – this was not so good.

During this time an alliance called Harmless ("H?") was formed and, believe it or not, it stood as a beacon of light and example for others. There are those who proliferate the message that, actually, H? is quite evil, it tried to dominate the server and imposed its will on others. Although this myth has grown of late, a little investigation and exploration of now dead alliances can validate that H? at least represented (more or less) everything that people used to love about Illyriad – namely, protecting smaller players and preventing ruthless soldiers of fortune from dominating the server.

Words are wind, some might say, but I bring you more than words and hot air.

Exhibit 1: http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/#/Alliance/Alliance/1

The above is a link to the H? alliance page. People should take the time to actually read what it says. It is good stuff and represents ideals that most players (I believe) would accept to be excellent values for all the Illyriad community (if you are not a warmonger, that is).

Some may now ask, well who were The White Company and, indeed, The Black Company. These were mercenary alliances, warmakers and sellswords. They had no peaceful values and yearned to become a dominant force within Illyriad. Interesting to note, they were totally destroyed by H? and Illyriad became a safer place to live in as a result.

I ask that interested players actually look at these alliance pages to see what they represented.

Exhibit 2: http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/#/Alliance/Alliance/7

Exhibit 3: http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/#/Alliance/Alliance/23

Nothing remains of these alliances because of the early wars fought so long ago. It is important to note that Illyriad developed a reputation for being a very friendly game with helpful players. It was very different from games like Evony and this was recognized by many gaming magazines/websites.

Exhibit 4: http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/04/05/mmobility-illyriad-a-kingdom-in-your-pocket/

Exhibit 5:http://vagary.tv/archives/15673

And so it was that Illyriad was set apart from other games, one key virtue being the Illy community itself. Notwithstanding, it became apparent that the only way to maintain peace would be with the capacity to enforce that peace militarily if need be (yes, somewhat ironic I know). In my view this was one of the reasons for the creation of the Night Crusaders ("NC") alliance – a strong military arm. NC became extremely effective and proceeded to purge Illyriad of heretics hungry for war wherever they could find them (irony again...perhaps, but it got the job done and peace, for the large part, was maintained in Illyriad).

For the sake of completeness, I should stress that NC is in fact a military alliance and enjoys fighting a good fight. It certainly makes the game a whole lot more fun when you can explore all aspects of gameplay. There is a time and place for warfare, yet there should be no place for the bullying of small players and alliances who are themselves peaceful.

Also, I must point out that naturally there have been many wars where H? and NC have not been involved (and some where one but not the other has participated). H? and NC, I understand, have never wanted to be a UN-like entity and on many occasions have pointedly refused to become involved in disputes. However, I am not going to go into these other wars and the issues surrounding them as otherwise there would be no end to my writing (perhaps another day).

Anyway, as time went on other alliances rose and fell, yet H? remained constant. Nonetheless, the time came when other alliances also became big and strong and started to impose their will on smaller, weaker alliances. When H? decided to assist the victims of these other alliances it did so swiftly and decisively. Their justification was to prevent the bullying of smaller alliances, and they did this very effectively indeed. This led to the more recent Illyriad wars which have not yet been totally forgotten. Nonetheless, the aggressors were decisively defeated as well, however, they were not obliterated as White and Black had been as they were not inherently 'evil' alliances, they were just alliances who had 'evil' players/leaders within. H? allowed the alliances to rebuild and live on, once the bad apples had been removed.

Even the bad apples were not destroyed, though now it may seem that they should have been. They were totally defeated and so they surrendered. Their surrender was accepted and after they compensated for these wars, they were allowed to get on with their lives.

At some point in time rare harvestable goods were introduced to Illyriad. Although this was, in my view, a great addition, it became a new cause for friction and concern within the Illy community. Many players fought others over the right to harvest these goods. Scarcity of certain goods meant that in order to maintain an advantage the said resources needed to either be traded freely or totally controlled by whole alliances (as far as possible). I believe that this was a further catalyst for another round of wars, coupled by resentment which had festered among the previous losers.

H? and her allies once more proved to be victorious and peace was restored. Again, alliances were not totally dismantled and once war reparations were made by the losing sides things were allowed to return to 'normal', albeit with even more bitterness left to fester among those losers.

What should have been done, but was impossible due to in-game limitations, was that the first-born son (or daughter, why not) of the losers should have been given to the winners as wards (ok, hostages really) so as to prevent a re-enactment of history. This would have enabled a permanent peace, or at least a greater lasting peace and much more far reaching. Alas, it is simply not possible to do this in Illyriad. (Yes, I am a Game of Thrones fan, does it show?)

Regardless, those losers licked their wounds and went into hiding, yet they would live to fight another day (again). This, I think, now brings us full circle to the present state of affairs.

It is submitted that, in light of the above, the present war situation can be better understood. Regardless of what happens, I want to try and preserve the historical facts as far as possible. Already history is being changed and many new players may never know the truth of Illyriad's past.

Those who have ears, let them hear. Those who have eyes, let them see.