ICON requests the right to compete!

    Dark never has been a training alliance. I am not sure where that piece of

misinformation came from but I could take a pretty accurate guess and probably be
 
right on target. However that is not important to this conversation.

     As leader of Dark I have remained silent on this issue of Jude, his alliance ICON and

 the relationship they have with the rest of the Illy community. I have done so for a

 couple of reasons 1. my alliance is young and i was unwilling to expose them to a war

 that could be costly to their growth, morale and desire to actively play the game.

 Though I am sure some of my members would have enjoyed going to war, the reality

 is most are not Illy "savvy" enough to do so in spite of their enthusiasm for it.

    2. I had no contact or relationship with Jude or ICON.  the only information I had

 was what was expressed in gc and the forums. Being far up in the western realms,

we had not suffered any serious attacks and the alliance my brother --stumpff-- and I

had founded was growing nicely. We entered a confederation with nightbringers as an

 equal, a brother alliance, not as night's training alliance.

    So I was content to remain neutral and see how things unfolded with the major

 alliances vs valar/ICON.  However this was not to be, one of my alliance members

 iofilip desired to start another alliance. At first this seemed like a good idea for him

 personally, so I was not opposed to it and agreed that if he desired to do so, I would

 help however i could in growing his new alliance. Unfortunately, I was unaware

 of how he planned to build his alliance and who he was involving to achieve a fair

 amount of players with substantial pop committed to his alliance before it had even

  officially been formed.

    When he approached me with his idea and who he was inviting into the alliance I

 was very concerned and advised strongly against it as did several other leaders

 notably myrin/myr. The subsequent fall-out was predictable and I had warned iofilip it

 would be so. My warnings and that of the others fell on deaf ears. Unfortunately, iofilip

 had direct links to DARK and through his alt to Night. I felt a responsibility to DARK,

 Night and the Illy community at large to make a statement through military action that

 we did not approve of the direction ~DN~ had plans to follow nor the membership it

 had and was recruiting (basically all of ICON).

     So having witnessed the conspiring between iofilip and Jude for their new alliance I

 felt that some action on my part was necessary and right. I had been left feeling very

 uncomfortable with what I had heard and seen transpiring in their planning and

 advised all my Dark OverLords of my concern. I will not name others who were

 present, only to say they also shared my concerns, with the exception of the ICON

 members, who I did not discuss this with on any level. So as the leader of DARK with

 input from my Dark OverLords and myr of nightbringers it was decided that I, stumpff,

 myrin/myr would engage in military action against Jude.

     The scope of this action right now, is limited to one city targeted for siege. My aim

 here is to show the community we are concerned our alliances were linked to an

 alliance ~DN~ who's ultimate direction we neither approved of nor assisted in

 evolving as it turned out too. I do not consider myself a judge of each players

 personal game style or how they play the game, as long as it is self contained it is not

 a problem for me. Having said that i do have a problem when another players style

 and game play affect others in a negative manner not once but over and over and it

 feels like we have reached that point in the Illy communities relationship with Jude

 and ICON.

      I have been long winded here but i felt it important to put the information out

 there as i believe it to be, I am not an eloquent writer so forgive my grammatical

 mistakes, I tried.

     As far as DARK'S continued involvement in this conflict after our siege

 on Jude's city that remains to be seen and in large part depends on their alliances

 condition and reactions to us after the siege. So to clear the air the responsibility for

 DARKS involvement is mine not Night, nor myr. Any criticism please direct it at me.