Decline of the Ordinance of Order
Entry posted by Fallen Fool
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I am bored and, rather than write a RL essay, I decided to finally make use of my blog.
So I found an old post I wrote awhile back that I thought was rather insightful, edited it a bit and used superscript annotations to expand certain sections. A link to the original can be found at the bottom of the post. Hope you all enjoy.
The Second Patriotic War was rooted as much in the Viricide as the cancellation of the Ordinance of Order. By which I mean the Second Patriotic War was the result of trends years in the making and anyone who talks about it as a result of a few decisions or actions is either misguided or pushing an agenda. But, for the sake of posterity, I'll provide a narrative and start at the beginning:Neither Order liked the destruction of the original Viridian Entente.1 Not just because VE did not deserve such a fate, but because the conflict proved how certain significant elements of the World Unity Treaty had very little compunction when it came to the mass murder of a former friend and ally. This general amoral lust for violence, as well as the growing statistical strength of it's two chief proponents FAN and GOONS, led the Orders to discuss long term strategy in late May 2007.2 Sponge, with Ivan's support, wanted to begin making active preparations for an eventual break. Moo, while recognizing the long term threat, thought diplomatic dialogue with moderate elements could maintain Order supremacy.
Fast forward three months. FAN died after it pushed the envelope too far by attacking Norden Verein,3 RandomInterrupt built the Polar MDP web as a safety measure after Sponge ordered him to,4 and certain players were removed in a major scandal. As a result, those players' alliances, which became known as the Unjust Path, started screaming bloody murder and demanding the sacrifice of certain other players with connections to the Orders. Convinced the break in WUT was at hand, Sponge and Ivan pushed Moo to align NPO more clearly with Polar. Moo refused, believing diplomacy could settle things. Out of patience, Sponge and Ivan, with the assistance of BlackAdder, pressured Moo into resigning. NPO's other leadership responded poorly, Ivan was overthrown and Moo retook the throne.5 Before things could spiral too far out of control, however, diplomacy won out and a month long cold war between Polar and the Unjust Path began, with NPO caught somewhere in the middle.
Long story short, Moo brought the NPO down on Polar's side as a non-belligerent ally,6 the Polar MDP Web worked like a charm, and the leadership of GOONS effectively self-destructed. A major victory for the Orders, but tension remained between the alliances remained high.7 Sponge, in his uniquely blunt way, told Moo Polar would no longer play second fiddle and that Polar now had the power of life and death over NPO (NPO claims this is a threat meant to keep them in line, while I take the view that Sponge was warning off retaliation now that the mutual enemy was dead).
At this point, I think, NPO made a conscious decision. They did not like that Polar had the power over them it did and they no longer believed Sponge (and through Sponge Polar) could be relied upon to act fraternally. So in the months which followed NPO rarely intervened to help Polar when it made poor decisions, it actively undermined Polar at times, and it built a new power base by reaching out to alliances which had grievances with Polar (first Citadel, then Superfriends). As best as I can figure, the moderates in NPO thought they could break Polar and turn it back into a subsidiary, while the hardliners thought NPO would be better without Polar.
Problem is once the engine picks up steam you cannot stop it by asking it to, and sending your brother on a collision course with death is bad press. The NPO moderates underestimated how hard Polar's enemies would come for blood once it was weakened and the hardliners severely underestimated just how poorly the death of one Order while the other prospered would be received, both internally and externally. So Polar was smashed, NPO lost massive amounts of political capital and the NPO brand was irrevocably damaged.
Now do I think NPO ordered TOP et al into battle against Polar in the SPW? Nope. But I sincerely believe NPO, sometimes gleefully, helped Polar and it's enemies pave the path to war, at least until they realized how counter-productive it was to their own agenda. But at that point it was too late.
So tl;dr, NPO made a political play in the post-UJW world which didn't pan out as they expected.
1I start with the Viricide because I believe it is a strong starting point for the narrative. In all actuality, however, tensions within WUT had begun to flare up with the expulsion of the Confederacy of Independent States several weeks earlier. Most of WUT was either supportive, or apathetic, about the expulsion. The only dissenting voice, supposedly, was Polar.
2An often asked question is why the Orders, if they opposed the Viricide so vehemently, did not turn on the Grand Global Alliance, the alliance which spearheaded the war. As far as I can tell, it was a mix of realism on the part of GGA and realpolitik on the part of the Orders. GGA, or at least some members of GGA's government, knew the war had some sincerely negative results and took responsibility for them in private. The Orders appreciated the admission and believed GGA's leadership had the same misgivings about GOONS and FAN, and could be relied upon if WUT broke down.
3The private reasons and rationale for the war against the Federation of Armed Nations are essentially the same as were provided in public. FAN had become increasingly unstable as an ally and a dire threat to stability. When FAN attacked an alliance they knew was protected by NPO, the Orders supported their expulsion both as a matter of principle and practicality.
4Sponge decided sometime between the beginning of the FAN War in June 2007 and August 2007 to forge ahead without Moo. Hence treaties with new allies such as IRON and the development of personal relationships with the leadership of GATO and Legion. He also took an increasingly belligerent attitude towards GOONS and \m/. For instance, Sponge got into a metaphorical screaming match with some of their representatives during discussions about possible peace terms for FAN. Suffice to say, such actions strained relations with what would become the Unjust Path and, at times, NPO.
5This foreign affairs crisis precipitated a domestic crisis in Polar, as members discontent with Sponge's actions and policies secretly rallied around Harry Harper. Before his resignation due to his frustration with Sponge in early August, Harper had been a longtime Minster and one of the more active Polar's within WUT's leadership. He approached RandomInterrupt, then Minister of Truth and one of his friends, about the plot. Random responded by gathering as much intel about the plot as possible and then going to Sponge. Harry was expelled, EZI'd, and ceremonially executed (Slashes-With-Claws, at that time the former Minister of Peace, created a pretty excellent thread about it in the private members forums). Harper's co-conspirators were allowed to leave in peace, provided they agreed to leave Polar alone forever.
6NPO allegedly offered to support the UJP in order to lull them into a false sense of security, and then pressured alliances allied to NPO, NpO and one or more UJP alliances to side with Polar. NPO also launched military operations against GOLD for aiding FAN, which at the time they connected to the overall war. Subsequently, however, they were keen to clarify that it was a separate war entirely.
7Several attempts, some big and some small, were made to patch up relations between the Orders. Things improved significantly on a membership-to-membership level, but never reached any significant level of trust on a leadership-to-leadership level. A working relationship which suited both sides was, however, maintained until the deterioration of Polar's position was accelerated in May 2008.
http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?showtopic=103534&st=40&p=2756262entry2756262
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