Yet Another Attempt to Organize the History of CN

[John Michaels]

Revision Log:

5/13/09 - Part one rewritten to promote better flow, etc. etc.

Greetings, fellow members of Cybernations. Those of you who remember me might recall I started and wrote a good portion of the History of Cybernations, eventually losing interest and passing it on to more willing hands. While it is good to see some progress has been made since my last departure, the History of Cybernations has languished for a significant length of time. Therefore, it is my hope that, as a community, that those willing will come forward and help me take stewardship of this endeavor.

While I would be willing in my spare time to work on this thing, the problem is I've been out of the loop since the Vox Populi affair back in, I believe, somewhere around June of '08. That's almost a year I've missed and even though politics have become boring as hell until the Karma War's roots, there's still important ground to cover. As a result, I'm calling any and all people willing to lend a hand in educating our younger players on the many ways in which we have backstabbed each other in the past. I need people who know stuff.

I John Michaels, and Doitzel (AKA Elyat) are the current chroniclers. No, you may not join us right now, nor will we be accepting any writing. But, if you were someone important and want to contribute information to this history, contact myself or Doitzel Elyat to share any information you have that might help us out. It's awesome if you do and you will be credited.

Furthermore, if you believe a portion of this history is biased one way or another, please post the offending section in question and explain why you feel that way. If you just tell me I'm a biased jerk I'll ignore you because you're stupid.

Now that the other stuff is out of the way, the History of Cybernations. For those of you wondering how this whole thing works, allow me to explain: because the History is such a gargantuan wall of text, I have decided to break it up into smaller sections, called Volumes, which cover seperate eras of CN's history. Volume 1 covers to beginning of CN to the end of Great War III. Volume 2, when it is completed, will cover the end of GWIII to the end of the Karma War. Volume 3, well, who knows at this point?

Volume 1: Title TBD

Part 1: The Beginning

January 2006

Cyber Nations, CN, Digiterra, the Cyberverse, and Plant Bob are all common names for this world, which entered existence on January 6th, 2006. It premiered to little fanfare and only a handful of nations joining over the next few days. After a week there were about 100 nations, who composed a friendly and tight-nit community. These nations quickly began joining larger organizations, alliances. Many were formed during this time period, but only two stood out: The Cross Atlantic Treaty Organization founded by Depraved, and the Imperial Nations Coalition created by Ninja, henceforth known as CATO and INC, respectively. After a sizeable period, CATO changed its name to the Global Alliance and Treaty Organization, or GATO, and that name stuck.

Because of the competition between the two alliances for nations and power, tension began to build between the alliances. On the main forums, members of both alliances began baiting each other about which alliance was superior, and on the private GATO forums, some nations began discussing war with the INC. They did not realize INC president Ninja had a spy in GATO and read it all. When he heard about the murmurs of war, he panicked and declared war upon GATO, leading to “World War I.” While tiny compared to future conflicts, it stands as the first real alliance war in CyberNations’ history.

Eventually, the Vice-President and Co-Founder of the INC, Chris Miller, decided the conflict was pointless and negotiated peace with GATO. In the aftermath of the war, GATO’s superior organization attracted many former members of INC, and that alliance soon vanished. No other alliance founded in this brief post-war timespan was organized and stabile enough to survive for any length of time, with the sole exception of the Greenland Republic, later renamed the National Association of Arctic Countries (NAAC). Cybernations continued to grow and prosper, and it seemed a matter of time before it would gain a large audience. It did, and much more quickly than previously anticipated.

This “when” came when a dimensional portal opened from another word, leading to a distant community whose full name is unspeakable in this realm, known only to Cyberverse residents as "NS." It was a far larger (but inferior) world. It was comparatively limited in potential compared to Cybernations, and members of NS were fascinated by the new potential of Cybernations. They came in waves, opening the doors for new alliances.

The NS invasion was not the last, or biggest, of these invasions. It was however, the most influential. The new alliances had existed in some cases years, already possessing dedicated members and formal organization. They wrote real treaties as opposed to the more informal agreements of the past, and forced any remaining alliances to adapt to maintain pace with the newer alliances.

A number of these alliances would stand out in importance. The Orange Defense Network (ODN) and the FCS Foreign Legion, later renamed the Legion were among the largest. Most significant of all of these alliances, however, was the New Pacific Order (NPO), a highly organized alliance that became the most powerful of these groups.

Part 2: Rise of the Order

February - April 2006

It was a number of travelers from the netherworld known as “NS” who originally founded the NPO. They set themselves up on the Red Team, the first alliance to officially settle down on and claim a color sphere as their own. The idea of basing an alliance on one team was started by the NPO, and soon the alliances chose their footholds, the NAAC Blue, the Legion went Purple, and GATO went Brown. Due to a pre-existing structure and membership base, the NPO soon outdid GATO in membership. Their leader was the often blunt, usually controversial, and always influential Ivan Moldavi, and he was a target for both great praise and great criticism.

CN’s eldest alliance, GATO, welcomed the new Order, signing a Non-Aggression Pact (NAP) and a Mutual Defense Pact (MDP) with the Orders. The Legion followed suit. They were the only two alliances to make such friendly overtures, as most viewed the Orders with suspicion; the Order’s nationalistic pride unnerved most. Inevitably, the militaristic, organized NPO would clash with other nations, and these conflicts became a constant in this early period.

The first of such conflicts took place between the Order and the NAAC. In the thread announcing the founding of the Cybernations NPO, the new NPO members celebrated the occasion by hailing the news of their founding. One of the NAAC’s leaders was less enthusiastic and responded by saying “Hailing is stupid.” His remark touched off a week of flamefests between NAAC and NPO members. Eventually, the NPO decided they would no longer tolerate the insults and declared war. If anyone doubted the military power of the Order, they stopped doing so after the Order launched a coordinated midnight blitz that would soon become their trademark, crippling the NAAC within a matter of minutes. Although late-night blitzes became a common tactic amongst most alliances, the NPO pioneered the attack and showed they were a dominant military force. They appointed one member, Tygaland, to briefly serve as a viceroy of the NAAC, although this move did little more than alienate the Arctic nations against Pacifica.

The next conflict came with the Orange Defense Network (ODN), another NS offshoot, who had formed in opposition to the NPO as the ADN in a previous existence, and the rivalry carried over into the Cyberverse. Tensions became palpable the moment both alliances were set up, and slowly built for much of February. Two incidents sparked the war. The first, an orange nation named KD launched a nuke at NPO member Sei. Although he was listed as an ODN member on the forums, the ODN found no record of him on their forums. Further alienating the two alliances was an ODN member, Kernwaffen, who decided on his own to spy upon the NPO. Together, the NPO decided this provided suitable cause for war.

With their now trademark midnight blitz the NPO attacked the ODN, causing the kind of crippling damage that had led NAAC to surrender. Half their members left, including most of the government. Rather than surrender, however, the ODN retreated and reorganized their government for a long and bitter guerilla war that lasted until April before a resolution was reached. In the end, the ODN paid a then-draconian sum of $500,000 to the NPO and all members were forced to sign an oath of non-aggression, an oath that would be a source of enmity against the order for months to come.

As the war continued between ODN and NPO, more alliances were sprouting up. On Green, the neutral Green Protection Agency (GPA) was joined by the newer Grand Global Alliance (GGA) and the two became the dominant green powers. Joined by a smaller alliance closely aligned to the NPO, the International Green Coalition (IGC), the three alliances initially pursued merger talks in the interest of forming a single green alliance, but they dissolved into bitter quarreling that would last for nearly half a year, earning Green the dubious reputation as the Balkans of the Cyberverse.

On orange came new invaders, the LUEnited Nations, coming from a community known as Life, the Universe, and Everything. In contrast to the serious, stuffy style of politics common to that era, LUE was more irreverent and designed to provide members with a laid-back alternative to the machinations of politics at the time. They were alternatively praised for lightening the mood in the game and criticized for bringing crude, unfunny humor that spoiled the relationships between nations.

Among these alliances was the International Coalition of Socialist Nations (ICSN), an alliance founded to be the first communist alliance in CN. During this time ICSN was experimenting with political parties, a move that ultimately proved to splinter the alliance. One ICSN malcontent decided to spy on the NPO. When the NPO discovered that a spy was in their midst, they declared war on the ICSN and were unexpectedly joined by LUE. After the declaration of war, the largest of the ICSN’s parties left and formed a new alliance, the International Communist Party (ICP). The NPO satisfied itself with the damage done, and its remnants would linger as a ghost of an alliance for some time.

As the Cyberverse expanded and attracted new alliances, politics became more complicated. The early friendships and informal treaties began to give way, as smaller alliances began to congregate around larger alliances. Actions in these early days set precedents for the rest of CN history, such as how treaties should be structured, that espionage was valid grounds for a declaration of war, and alliances would create a formal internal structure. As alliances matured, alliances began drawing towards some and distancing themselves from others. The next two months would see murky ties give way to new spheres of influence.

Part 3: Polarization

May & June 2006

May would prove a tumultuous and important month in the history of Cybernations. By the end of the month, a number of events would see the redrawing of the political map, among them the first bloc, the first attempt to stamp out an alliance, and the first colony. The bloc in question was a Mutual Defense Alliance (MDA) known as the Independence Council, founded by some of the newer alliances to combat the power of the older superpowers. It consisted of ODN, LUE, GGA, and the United Civilized States (UCS). It left the other major alliances to play catch up.

In response to the formation of IC, GATO, NPO, the Legion, and the NAAC came together for a proposed MDA of their own, the Entente Cordiale. Had it passed, CN politics likely would have gone in a different direction than it ultimately did. It faced opposition because the treaty was worded such that if any signatory declared war on another alliance, the other signatories were obligated by the treaty to join in the war. This wording unnerved GATO and Legion, who rejected the proposed bloc. During a discussion after rejection in which NPO government tried to convince GATO to sign the treaty, Minister of Defense Chris Kaos staged a walkout, stating the matter was not up for discussion. The Order was offended by CK’s actions, and the incident was the first fissure in the long-held relationship between the Order and GATO. The Independence Council ended up collapsing because of overly lax admission policies. LUE decided to extend an invitation to the NPO to join, causing the rest of the alliances to withdraw.

Soon after the Entente Cordiale debacle, two members of LUE decided to try and take advantage of the sour relationship between GATO and NPO. LUE member had forum admin bros change his name to Ivan Moldavi, and posted a topic making it look like the NPO would be attacking GATO. LUE co-leader Yaridovich defused the situation by publically revealing the scheme and ejecting bros and IF2 from the alliance. IForget2 would go on to be the most prominent rogue of the early CN era, founding a “Rogue Alliance” that never quite succeeded in its goal of taking down the existing power structure.

It was the final diplomatic incident of May, however, that had the greatest impact was the Second Polar War. It started when a few NAAC members came forward to the NPO, showing evidence one of the NAAC leaders, Arctic, had a spy in the NPO. The NAAC response to the news was deemed unsatisfactory, and the NPO launched a trademark blitz, causing great initial damage to the NAAC. Shortly thereafter, GATO declared war when an NAAC leader, The Holyone, posted a screenshot from a private GATO forum, and the Legion joined as per the Imperial Accords. Unlike their last war against the NPO, this time the NAAC did not capitulate. Even when desertions whittled them down to 50 members, they still refused the terms of surrender provided by the NPO, which included make an oath of eternal non-aggression against the NPO and resignation from their alliance. Led by theBlitz, they promised eternal warfare against the NPO if necessary.

It was during this phase of guerilla warfare that the NPO decided to undertake their most controversial venture to date, the New Polar Order. The NPO decided that they would found a new alliance to provide stability on the Blue Team. The alliance was primarily composed of former Pacificans who wanted to help found a new alliance, and refugees from the Arctic War, although Ivan was duel emperor of the NPO and NpO, as it was called. Eventually, Tygaland would replace him as sole emperor of the NpO.

After the announcement, the Legion pulled out of the war feeling that the devastation wreaked on the NAAC was enough, although privately they were harshly critical of the terms and offended that the NPO had moved forward in this direction without seeing fit to inform them of their intentions. GATO went one step further, voicing the discontent the Legion kept private. The new Assembly Chairman of GATO, Vercingetorix, blasted the New Polar Order as nothing more than an imperialist power-grab on the part of the NPO to take advantage of the war-weakened state of the NAAC and offered to accept Arctic nations without taking the oath. Legion also attempted to open their doors to refugees, but was hampered by the rules of its charter. LUE attempted to found a similar alliance on the sphere, but bLUE was unable to gather the necessary support and died.

By the end of May, the events of the IC and EC affairs and the Second Polar War all contributed to an increasing polarization of the postwar world. The world’s largest alliances, GATO and NPO, had gone from close friends to allies in word only. And events during early June quickly changed that. A flurry of MDPs were signed; GATO with LUE and ODN, LUE with GGA. The two sides of the MDP web were beginning to form.

The polarization of CN politics became complete in early June thanks to the work of GATO’s domestic affairs minister, Grenval. In a barbed parody of the New Polar Order, Grenval created a mock announcement of the founding of GARO, a red-team branch of the Global Alliance. The NPO was insulted, and, coupled with the earlier rebuke of their policies, decided they no longer viewed GATO as allies. Ivan Moldavi announced the Order would part ways with their longest allies, suspending their MDP, although they still kept their NAP with GATO. The severing of the oldest MDP in CN set the stage for a future conflict with the NPO. June, however, would not be the month where such a conflict would take place.

There was more going on than just the fallout of the Polar War, however. Going back to the initial merger talks with the IGC and GPA, CNers knew GGA Emperor Prodigal Chieftain for his at times erratic behavior. A number of GGA nations grew tired with his antics and went off to found their own alliance, the Coalition of Green States (CGS). Prodigal Chieftain made a number of threats to the new CGS, which, when publicized, lead to LUE suspending their MDP with the GGA. New alliances continued to come to prominence, most notably the Independent Republic of Orange Nations, or IRON, who distanced themselves from CN politics and eventually grew to one of the largest alliances on the Orange sphere.

The events of May and June rewrote the political framework of the Cyberverse, as two new sides formed. On one were the Orders and their friends in the IGC. On the other were GATO, LUE, ODN, and more or less GGA. The Legion’s treaties tied it to the NPO, but the alliance tried to remain neutral. Other alliances, such as the GPA and IRON, preferred to have no entangling alliances with the two sides. As June drew to a close, sniping between the two sides became more and more frequent as the tension was virtually palpable. Both sides were preparing for a war, and they didn’t have long to wait.

Part 4: The Hottest Month of the Year

July 2006

The growing tension was palpable in July, and in contrast to the comparatively peaceful June, July was a month defined by war. It began with the Warpstorm Alliance, a small Purple alliance that decided to attack the Legion for no reason other than because they felt like it. While it was one of many beat downs issued to small alliances, it is notable for being the first alliance war to feature widespread use of nuclear weapons. To this point, nukes were expensive and dangerous, affordable only to a handful of nations and could practically destroy a nation in one blow. But new nukes were introduced that were still devastating, if not nation-destroying, and it was discovered that launching nukes contributed to the GRL, or Global Radiation Level, which would damage the environments of all CN nations. The ever-constant growth of nations made it easier for nukes to be acquired, meaning the next war would likely be a nuclear one.

That next war came close to occurring on July 11th, when LUE published a discussion between the NPO’s 2nd in command, Vladimir, and a LUE member, and it appeared Vladimir had accepted information from him. LUE further announced an intention of cutting all diplomatic ties to the NPO. Vladimir tried to explain that he had accepted this spy’s information only to see if he really was a spy or not. Ivan Moldavi, who had not read much of the topic, interrupted by denying all the charges Vladimir was admitting to. The situation promptly turned into a flame war that required serious damage control and created much bad publicity for the order.

It is now known that the LUE spy who came to Vladimir had been a double agent for the LUE government all along, trying to catch Vladimir accepting information from a spy. This news would not become public until long after it ceased to matter, and the matter soon came to a rest, albeit without any protection for LUE against NPO and vice versa.

The Global Wars of CN have historically started over seemingly minor reasons. It is important to understand that these small events are only a small portion of the overall cause for war, that more often than not these wars are a matter of inevitability and the official casus belli is moreso an excuse than the real reason for war. Such is the case with the first Great War.

Indeed, such was the case on the night of July 15, 2006. On that occasion, Co-Leader Yaridovich of the LUEnited Nations, decided he wanted to quit the game. Rather than go quietly into the night, he decided that he would do everything possible to get himself banned. Account suicides, or LUEicides as more commonly referred to back then, were common for the original LUE community, and those making them made sure they were as graphic and shocking as possible. Yaridovich’s post was no exception, and it contained a serious of graphic stories, most notably one concerning Pope Pius XIII of the NpO and IGC Empress Rysonia, in addition to a highly inappropriate picture. Within minutes it was removed by the Moderators, but by then most active users had already seen it.

The Order was outraged and demanded an apology from LUE. LUE complied and banned Yaridovich on their private boards. However, the Order were unsatisfied because of a number of high profile LUE members who expressed their amusement in the incident in the public LUE channel. The NPO decided to attack, and contacted LUE allies GATO and ODN. ODN promised to, and did, suspend their MDP with LUE. The GATO representative, on the other hand, stated they would do so, but they needed to convene their government first.

At this point, it appeared that GATO and ODN would withdraw their support and let LUE be destroyed. However, before GATO was able to take action, NpO emperor Tygaland took matters into his own hands, declaring war on, and then launching a nuke at one of the LUE members in the public IRC channel, duffman04. He was nuked in response, and for 12 minutes nothing else happened. Then an NPO and LUE nation were nuked just six seconds apart and the war escalated. Ivan Moldavi declared a state of war with LUE, who knew they would not survive without help and turned to GATO. The entire government had not agreed to a suspension just yet, and decided that the honorable move was to support LUE, and declared war on the NPO. The first global war in CN’s history began.

The declaration by GATO opened the floodgates, and in the next few days countless alliances joined the fight. CDS, SRI, the Federation, ICSN, APA, DDA, AoAN, GGA, TAGA, OIN, NAAC, PrF, ODN, FIS, and LOSS all entered the conflict on the side of LUE, naming themselves the CoaLUEtion. While the numbers were small compared to later wars, just about every major alliance fought in the conflict, and it would be the first full-scale nuclear war in CN’s history. Many of these alliances had no diplomatic ties to LUE, but fought anyway. If anything, the participation of these alliances showed that the NPO’s foreign policy decisions of the past few months had alienated the majority of Cybernations. Only their friends in the relatively small IGC came to the help of the NPO and NpO, and they quickly dissolved.

Several days after the First Great War’s beginning, the world found itself at a stalemate. While the CoaLUEtion had a sizeable numerical advantage, the NPO was able to hold out fairly well to this point thanks to a number of advantages of its own. Firstly, the CoaLUEtion had no central organization and with the exception of the NAAC had no real military experience. Furthermore, the combat system of the day restricted the combatants one could fight to those 50 ranks above and below one’s nation. As the NPO had by far the highest concentration of nations in the top 100 of the combatants, they were able to hold out extremely well up there. Their smaller nations were not so fortunate, but were better fighters on average than their CoaLUEtion counterparts and when outnumbered fared better than the few CoaLUEtion nations caught in a similar position.

It was during this time frame that news of CN’s most successful spy rings was revealed: the Coven of the Lost. A group of real life friends who sought to influence in-game affairs, the coven consisted of Yoda, Assembly Chairwoman of GATO, Nosedondekistan, Alliance Councilor of the NPO, and EvilCartyen, Director of Intelligence for the Legion. All three were quickly ousted, although their influence on Planet Bob was not ended.

In his final move influencing Bob politics, Nosedondekistan sent a section of a logfile containing a private discussion of NPO councilors discussing the Legion’s refusal to enter the war. They were all frustrated and one of these councilors even suggested going to war with the Legion after the war at hand. Removed from these logs was NPO’s emperor Ivan Moldavi shooting down the idea. The logs struck a chord in the Legion leadership, which had long been growing dissatisfied with their relationship with the NPO and was becoming increasingly anxious about their foreign policy initiatives. Without consulting the Order and without regard to their MDP and NAP with the NPO, they decided to act.

In a move changing the course of the war, the Legion entered on the side of the CoaLUEtion, and although the NPO had received advance notice because of opsec breaches on the Legion’s part, they were still badly hit by the Legion, an alliance that could finally do serious damage to the NPO’s top nations. Accordingly, their slowly dropping numbers plummeted and the NPO fell beneath GATO and Legion in alliance strength and members. The Order’s outlook was bleak and total victory seemed at hand for the CoaLUEtion.

However, the Legion was never comfortable with the CoaLUEtion and their defense of LUE. They decided, along with ODN, to sign a white peace with the Orders. As a result, they left the CoaLUEtion back in a deadlock. Although the Order was greatly weakened by the Legion’s strike, they still held a strong grip on the top 100 and had greater central organization than most. It was clear that any long-term war would cripple the CoaLUEtion and the Orders, even in the likely event the CoaLUEtion ultimately prevailed. Faced with two options, neither of them particularly favorable, The CoaLUEtion chose to follow the example of the ODN and Legion, signing white peace with the closest thing to punitive terms being an admission of defeat from Ivan Moldavi. In time, this decision would haunt the CoaLUEtion.

In hindsight, GW1 was miniscule compared to later global conflicts, with comparatively low amounts of damage. More than anything else, however, it was the first of such conflicts, and firmly established the sides that would define politics for the next year and a half. For now, the Orders were badly damaged and diplomatically isolated and the CoaLUEtion alliances were far more united than they would be in the coming months.

Part 5: After the War

August and September 2006

August was one of the quietest months in CN’s history to date. Barring independent and neutral alliances like GPA and IRON, every major alliance had participated in the war, and were more interested with rebuilding than fighting, which all involved did with great fervor. In particular, the Order rebuilt with such speed that by the end of the month, they surpassed pre-war strength and stunned those who had short-sightedly written them off by the end of the month.

It is worth noting, however, that prior to the war the NPO was far and away the strongest, most populous alliance in the game. Now, they faced close competition from GATO and Legion, who were right behind them in size. CGS had renamed themselves the Coalition of Dark States and joined the Black Team. The nearly defunct ICSN merged into the ICP, uniting CN’s left for the first time in a long time. IRON gained an alliance mask for the first time in its existence.

While older alliances recovered from the ravages of war, new ones were formed as well, with two being of particular significance. There was the Viridian Entente (VE), a new green team alliance that had formed just prior to GW1 and drew many new members as a result of slowed recruitment from those alliances. The other was the Goon Order of Neutral Shoving, the first major invasion of CN since the LUEnited nations. Thanks to an already existing community they grew faster than any other alliance to that point, quickly gaining several hundred members.

Beyond the small stir caused by the GOON invasion, there were no major events worth documenting for the month of August. Despite the entry of several new alliances, the postwar MDP web had changed little, and the Orders were as isolated as when the war ended.

September passed much the same way, with little drama occurring. A number of treaties were signed, notably ones tying the Legion to GATO and ODN, moving it closer in line with the CoaLUEtion and further isolating them from their old allies in the New Pacific Order. The first bit of real drama to occur in nearly two months followed the founding of the /b/ alliance, arriving from a message board of the same name intending to take over CN. Unfortunately for them, CN is not a game that can be conquered in a day, and they decided to instead to become a legitimate alliance rather than an invasion force. Beyond these events, little happened for the majority of the month.

It was the final weekend of September when CN aroused from the post-war malaise. Events kicked off with the announcement of Ivan Moldavi’s retirement as emperor of the New Pacific Order, with Dilber announced as his successor. Ivan had been the public face and set the course for the alliance since its inception six months earlier, and his stepping down, combined with a reshuffling of the NPO’s internal structure, marked a new approach for the NPO. Where Ivan was blunt and unreserved, Dilber was coy and diplomatic. He understood that while his predecessor may have created an unparalleled military force, his diplomatic skills left much to be desired. Under their new emperor, the Order would aim for a gentler approach, preferring to charm rather than intimidate other alliances.

In another surprising move, the always unpredictable Prodigal Chieftain was ousted as emperor of the GGA, and was replaced by the Triumvirate of Bilrow, Aldbeign, and Beareroftruth, and despite some early instability were able to take control of the alliance, helped in part by Prodigal Chieftain’s swift departure from this world. With the new government in place, GGA surprised a good many by signing an MDP with the New Pacific Order, an alliance that the GGA had long been opposed to under PC’s rule. A second MDP, this time with long-time rivals the CDS, ended an era of hostilities between the two alliances. Finally, the enmity between the Green alliances came to an end, as they always were spurred on by Prodigal Chieftain.

The events ending September ended the relative peace of the post-war period. It was clear that the alliances involved were tired of the doldrums of peace and had regained the vitality expended in the war effort. As a result, the following months would prove to be much more heated than the prior two.

Part 6: Stormy Waters

October & November 2006

It had been a record three months since any war of significance had taken place in the Cyber Nations, but to describe October as peaceful would be foolish. If anything, it was a return to the pre-war politics, with new lines being drawn and a number of new alliances making an impact in the world.

After the final weekend of September, politics picked up speed and assumed the chaos that was a hallmark of Cybernations. The first major event of the month would be the signing of a full-fledged alliance between GOONS and the Orders. They styled themselves the Axis of Awesome, and ended the isolationist period of the Orders’ history. Dilber didn’t stop there, signing an MDP with the up-and-coming Viridian Entente, who nonetheless did not consider themselves a member of the Axis of Awesome. The newly formed Nordreich joined in, signing an MDP with the NpO. It was a controversial success for the new emperor and was evidence of the fruits of the Orders’ new approach, as they now had multiple allies they could count on. The swift return of the NPO to world politics left the CoaLUEtion alliances looking for an answer. It didn’t come and they would continue to lose momentum.

In particular, the largest alliance of the CoaLUEtion, GATO, would go from one of the more respected alliances in the game to the butt of jokes as a result of events in October. The troubles began when the disgraced Grenval of the GARO affair somehow won the Foreign Minister spot. While he started off his term on a high note, things quickly fell apart when Grenval involved himself in an affair which had little to do with GATO’s interests. Grenval posted his thoughts on the fate of a spy who had tried to infiltrate GOONS, as well the other alliance he was in. It degenerated into a flame war, during which Grenval stated GATO still did not recognize Polar as a separate alliance. He later resigned and Assembly Chairman Letum stated the Global Alliance recognized the NpO as a sovereign alliance. But this decision, made without the consent of GATO’s general assembly, became fodder for former Minister of Defense Chris Kaos, who placed charges of treason against Letum that ultimately forced his resignation. The charges touched off a power struggle within the alliance that was long coming due to Letum’s perceived incompetence as a leader.

It would take well more than a week for the alliance to make a decision, and cost them their diplomatic relations with the Axis of Awesome alliances, but eventually GATO decided to recognize the NpO as a sovereign alliance politically, if not militarily. Although the incident had certainly dragged the alliance’s reputation through the mud, members of GATO hoped that they could turn their attentions to resolving the alliance’s internal problems. Unfortunately for GATO, it was not to be. All the internal and external drama had drawn the attention of an older player who decided that something needed to be done.

The man in question was depraved, founder of GATO. He joined the alliance and professed to the General Assembly a desire to have things sorted out. While they assumed he would run for a position in the next set of Cabinet elections, depraved took a different, far more drastic course of action. As the root administrator of the GATO forum, he could effectively take over the forum if he wished to, and he did. He removed all administrative powers save for his own, and declared a coup of the old government, stating his intention to serve as dictator until the alliance could stand on its own. As it would turn out, a few days prior, he contacted major figures within the alliance, and ostensibly received their support in his coup. As it turned out, Chris Kaos privately convinced them not to support the coup, and moved against depraved once the coup had taken place. Without their support, most of the foreign community backed Kaos and the coup failed.

The controversies of October ended gave way to a November that ended the four-month peace after the First Great War, as a new team would earn the distinction of the Cyberverse’s Balkans, and the controversy over tech-raiding come to a forefront with the CNARF affair. It began, however, with a brief diversion from the increasing tension of the postwar world in the form of a new rogue alliance. This was Project Entropy, a failed attempt by several nations to leave the world and do significant damage as they left. The organization was eventually compromised by most alliances, and were hit before they were prepared for the eventual attack. It provided a momentary diversion from the drama of Planet Bob.

While Project Entropy was put down, a new conflict seized the attention of the Cyberverse. By November, the Green Team was no longer considered the Balkans of Cybernations. With the departure of Prodigal Chieftain, the Green Team had quickly improved relations with each other to the point that the flame fests of lore had become a thing of the past. VE, CIS and /b/ were becoming major green alliances and co-existed peacefully with the GGA and GPA. A new team would earn the dubious reputation during this month, Maroon. At first, Maroon’s major alliances, MDC, Nordreich, ONOS, and TTK all got along.

When the admin team announced the new one sanctioned alliance per team policy, maroon jumped to secure their sanction. It was immediately suggested by Cheyenne that a treaty be written up to protect the maroon sanction from outsiders, and Ferrous, with the help of King IB, quickly wrote one up for ratification. The treaty signing was going rather slowly until the International Communist Party announced intentions to move to maroon. Immediately the alliances saw the semi major alliance as a threat and signed the treaty rapidly, until Maroon’s major alliances had become signatories of the Balkans Accords. They threatened to sanction any ICP member who made the switch to Maroon, which was considered an act of war by the ICP side. Next, Nordreich revealed a detailed intelligence report which showed the hostile intents of the ICP, leading to the revelation there was a spy in the ICP. The declarations that eventually followed were little more than a formality.

At the height of Maroon-ICP tension, a member of the ICP defected and minutes later nuked Kaiser Martens, emperor of Nordreich, who immediately responded by declaring war on the ICP, and was swiftly followed by their allies in the Balkans Accords. While the ICP was a fairly large alliance, the Nordreich and their allies had the advantage of numbers from the beginning, even when ICP called in their MDP partners, SRI, EoS, S37 and ODS. With more communist alliances joining, AoA alliances GOONS and NpO joined their allies Nordreich and attacked the ICP. It looked like the ICP and company would face harsh terms of peace. Team Maroonica, as the maroon warriors had dubbed themselves, seemed to have full control of the war and could have imposed virtually any requirements for peace. It didn’t turn out that way, however.

News of a full and unconditional peace from Team Maroonica came only two days after the NpO and GOONs joined the assault. Considering that Nordreich had previously demanded the dissolution of their enemies before the NpO and GOONS joined, this was a surprising move. At first nobody outside of the Maroon Alliances knew why, but the truth soon came out. NAAC and several other CoaLUEtion alliances had begun plans to defend the ICP, and Nordreich offered peace to prevent a Second Great War.

NpO and GOONS were not at all happy with the unconditional peace, and their relations with Nordreich deteriorated accordingly. With the exception of these alliances, the Maroon War proved to be one of the few in CN’s history that ended somewhat amicably. The ICP wisely chose to move to Pink, where they were welcomed by fellow pink alliance LUE, who signed an MDP with the ICP. Maroon continued to grow and unite, with the Northern Defense Front being signed between many Maroon alliances. Over the coming weeks, Nordreich and the ICP would put aside their differences and begin to work towards better diplomatic relations.

The third and final controversy of November surrounded the Cyber Nations Anti-Rogue force (CNARF), which was founded by GATO’s Minister of Defense, walford, as an inter-alliance effort to protect unaligned nations against rogues. While it provoked little drama for most of its operation, the venture found itself in the midst of a controversy when Starfox101, then one of the leaders of the alliance >_<, was being considered as a target. GOONS member Decollo Lutum decided to punish walford for founding the organization and launched a nuclear attack on him. He was outraged that GATO members retaliated to his attacks and brought the issue to the forums. Members of GOONS and the New Pacific Order criticized such actions, calling CNARF the militant wing of GATO, and an attempt at a “world police force.” Critics argued that participants should be denied protection from their alliances and that CNARF functions as an alliance.

The peak of the CNARF controversy occurred when GGA Triumvir Bilrow and Elder Statesman Kevin the Great announced that GGA would begin a war games exercise against unaligned nations. The obvious purpose was to provoke CNARF, stating implicitly the issue that if CNARF attacked the GGA, it would escalate into a global conflict. They were overruled when it was revealed that the remaining Triumvirs and Elder Statesmen had not consented to the war games, thereby stating that Bilrow and Kevin had acted unconstitutionally. Though they were forced to take a leave of absence, a reconciliation could not be reached.

CoaLUEtion alliances were quick to respond, criticizing the GGA for such rash actions. Ultimately, LUE and NAAC cancelled their Mutual Defense Pacts with the GGA, firmly pushing the alliance into the Axis of Awesome side of the web. It marked the final rebuke of Prodigal Chieftain’s legacy and their final alienation from the old CoaLUEtion alliances. With the final ties between the two sides broken, it seemed that war would eventually return to Bob, and that a rematch was being set up between the CoaLUEtion and the Orders.

Part 7: Beyond the Precipice

December 2006 and January 2007

By the end of December, war was inevitable. If the complex nature of the MDP web made the sides somewhat murky, they would be clarified in full during this time. It was during this month that the first lasting blocs in CN’s history were formed. Three came to fruition: the Grand Union of Alliances for Rapport and Defense (GUARD), the Initiative, and the League.

GUARD was the first of these extended alliances, jointly founded by the North Atlantic Defense Coalition (NADC), the Organized Nations of Superiority (ONOS), and the Commonwealth of Sovereign Nations (CSN), as an alternative to the confusion of the MDP Web. They would later be joined by The Templar Knights (TTK), the Tri-Color Federation (TCF) and the United Sovereign Nations (USN). While the eldest of these blocs, it would be dwarfed by its successors.

The Initiative was the second of these major power blocs. It began as a four-way Mutual Aggression and Defense Pact between the alliances of FAN, GOONS, NPO, and NpO, but more alliances would be invited to join until it became the largest and most powerful of the power blocs. At its height, the Initiative consisted of the NPO, NpO, GOONS, FAN, \m/, VE, TOP, GGA, CIS, MDC, and NoR (who by now had made amends with their former allies.) With NoR’s entry into the Initiative, the Northdern Defense Front (NDF) collapsed.

Although it was the last of the three blocs to actually form, the League was the first to be discussed. Months earlier in September, the alliances of ODN, GATO, LUE, CDS, NAAC, and the Legion began discussing the possibilities of an extended MADP. Intended to counter the the growing bloc of allies NPO created, it would have united the CoaLUEtion into a single organization. This original pact never came to fruition due to opposition from the ODN and Legion to the aggressive aspects of the treaty. When the World Unity Treaty was signed, the CoaLUEtion immediately created an extended MDP between LOSS, NAAC, GOLD, LUE, GATO, ICP, CDS, and ACID called the League.

With the sides clarified, war was inevitable. The question became over what issue the war would star. It very nearly began due to the ambitions of a single Cybercitizen, LOSS member New Reverie.

In November, New Reverie began a mass-messaging campaign to earn himself a seat on the Red Senate. He surprised the Cyberverse with his success, wrenching a Senate seat away from the traditional dominance of the New Pacific Order. In response, the NPO issued a decree that stated they owned the Red Team and demanded New Reverie leave or LOSS and New Reverie would face dire consequences. When a voting drive by the New Pacific Order ousted him, the issue seemed resolved.

However, the matter returned to prominence when Emperor Dilber of the NPO published several PMs from New Reverie which attempted to rile up the independent red voters against the NPO. Citing this and the previous incident, they demanded New Reverie leave the Red Team or be attacked. LOSS censured New Reverie but did not follow through with the NPO’s demands. Just as it appeared war would finally break out, the world descended into an unnatural darkness and by the time Admin (Peace be upon him) drove it off, the tension had weakened. Peace didn’t last much longer.

This time, the world would go to war over the issue of the alliance Farkistan, the latest of a number of invader alliances that came to the Cyberverse in January. Due to a long-standing feud between Fark and GOONS extending beyond the realm of Planet Bob, the two alliances began on unfriendly terms. Privately, Fark discussed the possibility of attacking GOONS, and a member of LUE promised to secure funds for the alliance. The discussion was leaked to GOONS and they responded with a declaration of war.

LUE, who felt it wrong for GOONS to attack another alliance over feuds which had nothing to do with this world, intervened on January 7th by declaring war on the GOONS members attacking the Farkers, despite their lack of treaty ties. Over the following night, trickles of Initiative nations quietly began to attack LUE members defending Farkistan. In response, the alliances of GATO and NAAC declared war on the Initiative. From there, the remaining alliances on both sides jumped aboard the bandwagon: GWII had begun.

This time, it was the League, consisting of mostly CoaLUEtion nations, which fared worse. While their numbers were only slightly less than the Initiative, they were quickly routed by Initiative forces. As many Initiative alliances had raided nations to steal their technology, they were much better prepared for a war than the relatively disorganized and unprepared League. The League’s largest alliance, GATO was decisively defeated by a combination of Order nations assaulting their lower-level nations and the small but efficient TOP quickly defeating their upper-rung nations. The League’s best fighter in the NAAC did considerable damage to VE before FAN blunted their attack. In general, the League was ill-prepared for the war and their failure to press their nuclear stockpile advantage cost them dearly. As a result of their perceived “Aggressive” actions, the ODN and Legion crucially refused to enter the conflict.

Unprepared for the war, the League quickly capitulated with the exception of LUE, who left to allow their former allies to gain peace while continuing their conflict for Fark. They eventually surrendered and received harsh terms from the Initiative that crippled their rebuilding efforts. The war between GOONS and Fark would continue for some time. Compared to the previous Great War, the major theatres of war ended in a swift amount of time.

Controversy remains over the cause of war. The Initiative maintains that a war-hungry League, led by GATO and LUE, aggressively attacked them with no valid legal reason for doing so. The League disagrees, maintaining they involved themselves because GOONS had no right to dictate whether or not an alliance should exist. In reality, the League and Initiative were hell-bent on a fight and the League wanted a conflict early before the Initiative too powerful. And the Initiative themselves did little to attempt to resolve the despute.

Regardless, the war happened and the outcome was clear. The NPO had avenged their defeat in the First Great War, and served as a great disappointment to the League, who had failed in trying to oppose the Orders. LUE was crippled as an alliance and the Initiative in a position to dictate world politics.

Part 8: The End of an Era

February and March 2007

After GWII, an uneasy peace took hold of CyberNations. A defeated League disbanded, its alliances reverting to its traditional defense pacts, while the Initiative not only consolidated its power, but began to find new friends in small and upcoming alliances. Hatred remained between each side—the former League alliances decrying Initiative misuse of power while WUT signatories attacked the petty corruption and covert attempts to undermine the group. The months of March and April of 2007 would be the most destructive months in the history of CyberNations to date.

On February 24, 2007, Sister Midnight, the President of the Independent Republic of Orange Nations, revealed and condemned the LUEnited Nations, still crippled from the previous war, for posts on the website 4chan.org that not only derided the New Pacific Order, but also made jokes pertaining to racial slurs and ^$. The condemnations from other alliances were countless and, after a few days, LUE ejected Pointicus, Buzzard, and SolarS from the alliance, reaffirming that it in no way condoned or supported the statements on 4chan or the resulting discussion in its own IRC channels. However it was too little too late, and the incident cast a shadow over the post-war leadership of LUE.

As the world discussed potential future “Great Wars”, the international community was surpised by the revelation of private logs between Sir Galahad, Minister of Foreign Affairs of The Legion, and Vincent Xander, Assembly Chairman of the Global Treaty and Alliance Organization. In the conversation, Vincent Xander proposed, argued, and demanded that Legion assist GATO in undermining the New Pacific Order and the Initiative diplomatically. Sir Galahad responded with little interest and chastised Xander for attempting underhanded tactics and being obsessive about the Orders.

In response, the government of GATO fell under intense criticism from Initiative alliances while Sir Galahad and Legion were hailed for their even-handedness and honesty. Initially interpreted as a desire to attack the Order militarily, Xander retorted that he only wished to combat them diplomatically, but was never able to sufficiently appease his critics or regain Initiative trust—a failure that would ultimately prove fatal. In an infamous “apology”, Ivan Moldavi, Commandante of the NPO with the passage of the War Powers Act, stated “If the Order followed my will the nations of GATO would be at war with the nations of Pacifica as I type this. Your irreverent attitude towards myself and those that stand beside me is unacceptable and intolerable. It is a failing that you are not answering for your actions.”

The post-GWII peace was finally broken with the outbreak of the Saint Patrick’s Day Massacre. On March 17, Nordreich launched a surprise attack against the Libertarian Socialist Front, noting its recent and incessant accusations of Nazism within NoR ranks. The war quickly escalated when FCO, Global Democratic Alliance, and The Syndicate joined in on the side of NoR and Byzantine Empire, Socialist Workers Front, and EC joined on the side of LSF. The fighting ensued for about two days when the Internationale (or “Leftist Bloc”) surrendered. The first to surrender was BE, and after that a 24-hour ceasefire was declared. Soon, the EC surrendered, and finally, the LSF and SWF accepted a white peace with NoR, the Germanic alliance attaining a decisive victory over its historic rivals.

Two days after the initial declaration from Nordreich, the Third Great War began. The sheer scope of this conflict dwarfed any previous war in CyberNations, involving over 50 alliances and probably almost half of the game’s nations.

On March 19, 2007, Emperor TrotskysRevenge of the New Pacific Order declared war on the Global Alliance and Treaty Organization, followed by \m/, the Grand Global Alliance, and the Maroon Defense Coalition, starting the Third Great War. After a day with no new wars, the conflict erupted into a world-wide one with declarations by the National Alliance of Arctic Countries (who would primarily fight the New Polar Order), the Legion (the Federation of Armed Nations and the Order of the Paradox), We Are Perth Army (\m/), the League of Small Superpowers (the Viridian Entente), and to the surprise of many, /b/ (the Viridian Entente), against various Initiative alliances, both actively engaged and passively supporting. The sheer scope of this conflict dwarfed any previous war in CyberNations, involving over 50 alliances and having more combined casualties than had been previously inflicted in all of Planet Bob’s existence.

Initiative alliances railed against the alliances intervening on GATO’s behalf, ridiculing them for engaging alliances who were not actively involved in the war, and berated /b/ for breaking its neutrality. In response for the later, the Viridian Entente declared that it would fight until /b/ disbanded, espousing cautious support from its allies and criticism from GATO and its allies. A few hours after the Legion declared war, the Global Democratic Alliance declared war on the Legion honoring its Mutual Defense Pact with the New Pacific Order.

The war continued to expand on March 22, with declarations by countless alliances from both sides, including the mobilization of the Sphere, a bloc of small alliances led into the war by the Blue Turtle Alliance, against the Confederacy of Independent States, the declaration of the Orange Defense Network against the Goon Order of Neutral Shoving, the entrance of the LUEnited Nations and Coalition of Defensive States against the Initiative, and the expansion of the “Green Civil War”, or the fight between the Viridian Entente and /b/, by declarations of the Cross-X Alliance, the Multi-Colored Coalition Force, and the Illuminati against /b/. The last major declarations occurred on March 23, with the entrance of the Socialist Workers Front against the Initiative and Nordreich against the SWF—only five days since the beginning of the previous and short Second Maroon War.

Giving themselves the moniker of “AEGIS”, named after the unbreakable mythological shield of the Greek god Athena, GATO and its allies formed a loose coalition of alliances bent on breaking Initiative power, but the true optimism or belief in the mission has been called into question as of late. AEGIS forces, while numerous and constantly growing with the entrance of other small alliances (most notably Ronin and Old Guard), were outgunned statistically and completely out maneuvered by Initiative forces. Legion alone regularly lost anywhere from 250,000 to 750,000 total nation strength a day while never dealing more than 200,000 NS to FAN and TOP—its primary targets. Surrenders on the part of AEGIS alliances began on March 27, beginning with a trickle of minor alliances, followed by the exit and disbandment of the Sphere MDP bloc on March 29.

/b/ leaders eventually lost interest in the war and with little warning, started raiding the forums. The evening of the 30th, members of /b/ spread child pornography, animal mutilation, and bestiality throughout the forums—including the /b/ Emperor, Raptor Jesus. Acting quickly, Imperial Regent Furseiseki, who wasn't directly involved in the attacks, disbanded the alliance in an attempt to protect uninvolved /b/ nations from repercussions. AEGIS nations immediately disassociated themselves from /b/ as the incident took place, with NAAC declaring that it would cease offensive operations temporarily, despite an Initiative response that their attacks on the alliance would continue.

During a short period immediately following this incident, the Cyberverse descended into a short “Dark Age”, a period from which no records can be found. Theories around this period vary from the suggestion that Planet Bob suffered interference from a Coronal Mass Ejection aimed directly at it, to the religious proposition that God cast the world into shadow. Survivors of the period tend to be quiet in reference to it, stating simply that everybody went on vacation.

As Planet Bob emerged from the Dark Age, the war continued. However, the outcome of the war had become very clear to all alliances involved and AEGIS alliances began to surrender en masse. New Reverie, Consul of LOSS, attempting to find a way out of relocating to the Pink Team as demanded by the Initiative, surrendered once to terms that had already been withdrawn, requiring it to surrender twice to the Viridian Entente and its allies. GATO and Legion eventually surrendered to Initiative forces while the National Alliance of Arctic Countries, the LUEnited Nations, and Socialist Workers Front, either unable to find peace or unwilling to accept it, ultimately disbanded. AEGIS was defeated.

The Third Great War ended with the entirety of Planet Bob exhausted and wearied from war. Historical alliances disappeared from the Cyberverse and the Initiative remained entirely uncontested—not only were their enemies defeated, but completely destroyed. Initiative dominance was completely secured and unchallengeable.

Edited September 22, 2009 by John Michaels

[John Michaels]

Volume 2:

The Hegemony Era

Part 9: The Post-War Realignment

After Great War III the question pervading Cybernations was simple in concept, but infinitely complex to answer—now what? Of the once major AEGIS powers, only the Orange Defense Network, The Legion, and the Global Alliance and Treaty Organization remained of any significant strength, the three residing between 1 and 3 million NS. Fueled by hope, jealousy, or foresight, the single greatest prediction was that the Initiative would turn on itself, no longer held together by a common enemy. While a singular WUT Civil War did not occur immediately, the post-war period proved to be a time of enormous change for the Initiative, and all of Planet Bob, as alliances left it by various means—free will, forced ejection, and disbandment.

The post-war period received its first surprise before all fronts of the war had officially concluded when the Viridian Entente announced that it was not only canceling its signature to the World Unity Treaty, removing it from the Initiative, but was also canceling all of its other previous Mutual Defense Pacts with the New Pacific Order, the Confederacy of Independent States, and the Grand Global Alliance. The response was nothing less than absolute shock as, save for a handful of Initiative leaders, none had been informed of the planned move. In its announcement, the VE reaffirmed its friendship with its old allies, but maintained that “its time in the Initiative had passed.” Leaders of AEGIS and former AEGIS alliances celebrated the move and hailed Egore, the Lord of the Viridian Entente, for it. Conversely, while Initiative alliances professed that the relationship between them and the Entente was still strong, they criticized the realignment as being foolish and shortsighted.

The first signs of post-war tensions emerged on April 11, when Furytear, the Secretary of State for the Independent Republic of Orange Nations, made an announcement regarding Maccers the Great, a former IRON member who had moved to the Orange Defense Network, who had apparently released confidential information in a public channel. After approaching ODN in an attempt to have him diplomatically removed from the group before attacking him, Maccers began to mobilize a military and purchase additional nuclear weapons. Rather than wait and allow their target to continue to purchase nukes that would be presumably used against them, IRON attacked Maccers before ODN could finish investigating him.

The resulting response a day later, on April 12, from ODN was not one of Maccers’ ejection, but rather ODN’s complete surrender to IRON, canceling the long standing NAP and PIATs between the two groups. In the peace negotiations between the two, Maccers finally declared his boredom with the Cyberverse and departed it, granting his nation to the ODN to be used as a bank. IRON accepted the transaction of power as acceptable and the issue concluded. Relations between the two alliances would heal quickly, as evidenced by their signatures, along with The Order of the Paradox, to the Orange Unity Senate Treaty on April 26.

Late April saw a flurry of new treaties and friendships as former AEGIS alliances coped with heavy surrender terms, often prohibiting the signing of new Mutual Defense Pacts. One significant example was the establishment of Coral Accords on April 25, a multi-lateral Treaty of Amity pulling together the new major powers of the Pink Team in the wake of the disbandment of the LUEnited Nations: the League of Small Superpowers, the Libertarian Socialist Federation, United Nations of Outsider, M. Carter Brown, and the Phoenix Police Force. Another would be the disbandment of The Sphere MDP bloc very shortly after its withdrawal from the war, the alliances once comprising it distanced by the revelation that the reasoning used by Master Debater of the Blue Turtle Alliance to bring the bloc into the war was actually false. Alliances that had fought on the side of the Initiative also enjoyed change; the Multi-Colored Coalition Force and the Cross-X Alliance, who had fought against /b/ in the war, had grown extremely close and, on April 25, merged into the Multicolored Cross-X Alliance, or MCXA.

However, the biggest event of April 25, although it did not quite appear to be so at the time, would be in regard to Nordriech. Wartides14, the NoR Minister of the Interior, declared to the public that Nordriech had unveiled a plot by Stormfront, a white supremacy group, to undermine NOR and turn it into an alliance to promote and promulgate racist ideals. NOR immediately declared on those it had determined to be Stormfront members, in addition to declaring on the Shield Wall alliance, supposedly the Stormfront stronghold.

The situation continued to complicate when, on May 1, Leviathan XIII, Reichsmarschall of NOR, revealed that the Stormfront infiltration of the group was far greater than previously expected, declaring that Sigmund Ceowulf, the root administrator of the NOR forums, as well as NOR member Humanophage, were the primary leaders of the planned Stormfront coup. Nordriech moved to new forums and continued on. However, later that evening, Kaiser Martens, the Reichskaiser of Nordreich, announced that Leviathan XIII had been manipulating him for his own extremist ends, declared Leviathan an enemy of NOR, and apologized to Sigmund Ceowulf and Humanophage. While the public supported Martens, a handful began to suggest that not all was well within NOR, and that the issue had still not yet been settled.

Finally, on May 2, Kaiser Martens publicly announced that it was he who had orchestrated the entire mess, expressed regret for betraying his friends, and in one final act, removed Nordreich from the Initiative, before vacating office and leaving NOR, announcing his intent to create and lead a new Germanic alliance in the near future and stating that all those who remained in NOR were Nazis. While the surprise of the event echoed through the Cyberverse, the New Pacific Order, along with the rest of the Initiative, backed Martens’ Nazi accusation with arms, voicing threats of war soon to come to those who did not leave the group.

While a handful of long-time NOR members, such as Velka Fatra and Imperial-Cubanacan attempted to save the group, the threats served as the final nail in the coffin; nations began to pour out of the crumbling alliance and, for all intents and purposes, Nordreich disbanded, its nations scattering, with many following Kaiser Martens to his new alliance, Norden Verein. NoV would soon gain protectorate status with the NPO, setting the stage for controversy in the future

The evening of May 3 also resulted in the departure of a WUT signatory: The Confederacy of Independent States. Over the weeks prior to its ejection from WUT, the CIS had been internally discussing and debating its options in regard to its alignment and place in the Initiative, with many members feeling that perhaps it would be better to remove itself from the group. With the end of the Third Great War, the CIS' MoFA approached the Orange Defense Network, discussing various ideas about aligning if and when the Confederacy left the Initiative. These discussions led to the proposal of an MDP between the two, which the CIS proceeded to vote on while ODN continued to discuss it internally. While the voting was taking place, a few Initiative alliances caught wind of the Confederacy’s ideas and approached the CIS about them, at which point Spakistan, Supreme Councilman of the CIS, who notably had been inactive for several days prior to the incident stated in a private conversation“"no MDP [had been] written". Later that day, Spakistan proposed the idea to the entire Initiative, oblivious to the extent at which the idea had progressed, at which point his earlier statement was attacked for being a lie.

In addition to this, logs between Kevanovia, Minister of External Affairs for CIS, and Soccerbum, Deputy Secretary General of ODN, discussing ideas pertaining to submissive/assistant alliances were leaked to Initiative leaders, who interpreted it as a suggestion of CIS becoming a submissive alliance to the ODN. However, nowhere in the discussion was CIS ever mentioned, both parties attesting that it was no more than idle speculation and a suggestion that the ODN create a new alliance submissive to itself—without anything to do with CIS other than that it was the idea of a CIS member. It should be noted that no evidence of such logs was ever made public.

Nonetheless, the Initiative voted to expel the Confederacy of the Independent States a few days later. Strangely enough, in the public announcement of CIS’ ejection, Confederate leaders claimed that they had already voted to leave the Initiative voluntarily, but had simply delayed in publicly announcing it. In addition to removing the CIS from the Initiative, the Grand Global Alliance proceeded to cancel its signature to United Green, the MADP between itself and CIS (as the VE had already canceled its signature), effectively cutting CIS off from WUT.

April ended with the world stage shifted—the World Unity Treaty had lost three of its signatories, two of them being original founders, and shrunk considerably. New treaties shaped the landscape, with the GUARD bloc and the now independent Viridian Entente/Confederacy of Independent States taking a more proactive role in international affairs. Despite the internal upheavals of some alliances, April passed in peace, alliances still rebuilding from the Third Great War, and preparing for the conflicts of May.

Part 10: The Ephemeral Joys of Victory

As April faded into May, the Cyberverse was still reeling from the effects of Great War III. The victors relished in their complete and total victory, while those less fortunate, burdened with heavy surrender terms, faced a long road of recovery. The Initiative now stood as the center of power in Cybernations, the Cyberverse having bidden a final farewell to the days of the intense rivalry between the League and the Initiative; a fact that many would reflect upon with melancholy as the days went by.

Despite the crushing defeat of AEGIS by the Initiative, all was not well in the World Unity Treaty. The Initiative had recently seen three former signatories, the Viridian Entente, Nordreich and the Confederacy of Independent States depart from the World Unity Treaty for reasons as diverse as the alliances themselves.

In early May, Nordreich folded after the infestation of Stormfront members was discovered, though Nordreich would not die completely, as Kaiser Martens disbanded it and created a new alliance called Norden Verein with many of the same government members.

In spite of all the lost signatories to the WUT, the Initiative still found itself at the top of the Cyberverse, with most of the strongest alliances retaining their signatures. It would suffer little from the loss of its former members; instead, it would be the Viridian Entente that would set the stage for the upheaval that would define May. Since the end of Great War Two, the Viridian Entente had been considering the possibility of a colony alliance in another colour sphere in order to stay below their self-imposed member limit of 400, but still have a place for prospective Entente members to expand their sphere of influence.

Unfortunately for them, the Viridian Entente had a few minor altercations with the Goon Order of Neutral Shoving before the announcement of their Colony Alliance was made. Had it been otherwise, events might have gone differently. Two separate incidents involving nations being admitted to the Viridian Entente while remaining on the “Enemy of Goons list” created a small rift between the two former allies, a slight that was further compounded by the existing animosity created by Entente’s abrupt exit from the Initiative. When the creation of the Obsidian Entente was announced, the GOONS would have none of it. Despite 404 Error’s alleged permission for the Obsidian Entente to exist on the Black team, the GOONS quickly ordered the Obsidian Entente to vacate the black sphere, else they would be attacked “probably in like a day or so.” Rather than enter into a futile dialogue with GOONS, the Obsidian Entente left the Black sphere for the Aqua sphere and rebranded themselves the “Oceanic Entente.” Despite this move the Viridian Entente had tasted the last of its post GWIII victory.

Since the Viridian Entente left the World Unity Treaty, huge rifts between the former allies opened with surprising rapidity. Just before Update on May 24th, the alliances of Viridian Entente, Northern Treaty Organization, Confederacy of Independent States and The Grämlins signed the Green Solidarity Act, a pact of Mutual Defence, just as war seemed imminent. Citing various issues with the Viridian Entente’s leadership and their encroachment of the GOONS-owned Black Sphere, the Grand Global Alliance declared war on the Viridian Entente, Confederacy of Independent States and the Northern Treaty Organization on the 25th of May, just eight minutes after the Green Solidarity act was posted on the Open World Forums.

The announcement was followed by declarations of war from \m/, the Maroon Defense Coalition, Genmay, GOONS, the Federation of Armed Nations and the New Pacific Order. The Grämlins never entered the conflict, but the Viridian Entente and NTO issued announcements that they acknowledged the war and intended to fight to remain on the Green team. The Obsidian Entente, despite being made up of some of the most loyal former members of the VE, never entered the conflict, but gave their moral support. They initially closed admission for a week to dissuade former VE members from joining and to prevent an incident with the Initiative, but eventually were allowed to admit former VE members possibly due to bad press from the war, which would later be called, "The Viridicide."

Instead of fighting and having its members destroyed, the Viridian Entente officially disbanded later that day around 10:00 PM. CIS surrendered and relocated to the White sphere, as did the NTO who moved to the Brown sphere. The disbanding of the VE passed the sanction mask to the North Atlantic Defense Coalition, and the Oceanic Entente would eventually secure its place on the Aqua sphere after negotiations between the Initiative and the Mostly Harmless Alliance proved auspicious.The face of the Green Sphere was irrevocably tarnished, and the event would leave a chip on the shoulder of many former Viridians which they would take with them to their new homes.

May had still not seen its last days of controversy, as the Federation of Armed Nations and the Global Organization for Liberty and Defense would enact a new piece of legislation in the waning days of May that would capitalize on their mutual control of the Yellow Sphere. The new policy would be known as Yellow Number 5, and it protected all independent Organizations on the yellow sphere from tech raids, to be enforced by the aforementioned alliance’s militaries at will, with little to no notice to the attacking nations. FAN and GOLD paid little attention to who was actually attacking the yellow nations, and openly attacked members of their own allies who had tech raided yellow nations. Despite protests from their allies in the Initiative, FAN continued enforcing their policy and paid little heed to the growing anger that their actions fuelled. It would not be until June when FAN’s actions would eventually cause the heat of friction to reach the melting point.

Part 11: Out of the Frying Pan

However, the early days of June would have the spotlight shone on a different alliance. The newly sanctioned Organized Nations of Superiority were an up-and-coming alliance known throughout the Cyberverse for their good-humoured spam and affability. ONOS sought an independent foreign policy, or at least one that would not have them tied to the traditional powers of the Cyberverse. Together with the North Atlantic Defense Coalition and the Commonwealth of Sovereign Nations, ONOS had founded the neutral Bloc GUARD in December 2006, a group that enjoyed the status of the second largest bloc in the Cyberverse for much of its existence.

ONOS would not be able to maintain its strong growth however, as internal disputes wrenched several top government officials out of the alliance. Da Choice, one of those displaced members, eventually joined the New Pacific Order, and allegedly made accusations that ONOS had been operating a spy ring within many of the top alliances, including the NPO. Despite these accusations however, the NPO would cite the theft of one of their confidential nation-building guides by ONOS as the principal cause of strife between the two. The NPO offered ONOS an ultimatum, which stipulated the acceptance of an Ivan Moldavi viceroyalty and the payment of 800 million in cash, or a war would ensue. As the GUARD constituencies were reviewing the evidence, ONOS submitted their resignation from the Bloc in order to spare their allies from attack by the Initiative.

ONOS accepted the NPO’s ultimatum, but this would not be enough: the NPO had found evidence that Michael4 , the highest-ranking government member of ONOS, had altered the ONOS forums prior to Ivan Moldavi’s masking as Viceroy, and had offended the Emperor of the NPO by addressing him as “Moo-tang,” a name the Emperor would later ironically embrace. The NPO declared War on ONOS on June third.

After a short period of fighting, ONOS surrendered and again accepted the terms given by the NPO. ONOS would never be the same however, and despite restrictions placed on members leaving ONOS after the war, ONOS’ numbers declined dramatically until their eventual merger with the Defenders of Unity and Light to form the Confederation of Radical Elites.

The furor raised in the Cyberverse by these events soon subsided, but just as before, issues had a way of springing-up out of the blue, and this was exactly what happened on June sixth 2007, a date which just happened to be the anniversary of a certain battle in a far away universe. That day, the Federation of Armed Nations, a group staunchly linked to the personal weapons culture movement, posted an ambiguous declaration of war on the Open World Forum. The true implication of that declaration was not understood until sometime later, as FAN had attempted to make the move as clandestine as possible. It was revealed sometime later that FAN had declared a large number of wars on Norden Verein, thus setting the stage for the re-enactment of that storied struggle of long ago and far away. The battle would be later known as 'Operation Overlord.'

The negative stigma borne by Nordreich from their earlier debacle had carried over to Norden Verein, so at first, the war was met with passive support from most of the Cyberverse and it was not until the issue of the NPO protectorate was brought up that things began looking down for FAN. Norden Verein was still a protectorate of the New Pacific Order, and FAN had attacked apparently in complete ignorance of that agreement. The NPO approached FAN about this, and after diplomatic discussion cleared the air, FAN began pulling out of the war, leaving NoV in shambles.

Ostensibly, everything appeared normal between FAN and NPO, and general public opinion favoured FAN, with other nations often letting NoV know that NPO had saved them from certain destruction. The New Pacific Order however, did not appreciate such an abrupt and meaningless attack on their protectorate right underneath their noses. FAN had swung for the second time and missed again. It would take one more incident for FAN to finally strike out.

It was revealed sometime after Operation Overlord that the Federation of Armed Nations had entered into a secret agreement with the National Alliance for Arctic Countries before the Third Great War without the knowledge of the rest of the Initiative alliances. In brief, the agreement was that FAN and NAAC would avoid each other when selecting opponents in GW3. Indeed, FAN and NAAC did not initiate any wars between themselves during the entire span of the war. When the Initiative leaders discovered this, they became outraged that FAN had made secret dealings behind their backs with an enemy alliance in order to help minimize their losses.

On June fifteenth, The NPO and GGA withdrew from the “For the Love of God, Think of the Children” convention, an agreement that prevented nuclear first strikes during war. It became clear that any war with FAN would soon become a nuclear catastrophe. The Federation of Armed Nations reacted quickly to its rapidly worsening situation and on June seventeenth FAN cancelled the its Yellow #5 policy. However, this proved to be a classic case of too-little-too-late, as FAN was expelled from the World Unity Treaty the following day. That same day, FAN found themselves at war with The Initiative, IRON and many smaller alliances. The war that would come to be known as the FAN-WUT war had begun.

The Initiative, knowing that the Federation of Armed Nations had one of the largest nuclear stockpiles of any alliance, and doubting their ability to handle FAN on a strictly conventional basis, ordered a pre-emptive nuclear strike against FAN as soon as they could push the button. The Initiative then ordered nearly all of its nations fighting FAN to send peace offers to their opponents because of the fact that they were still unsure of their ability to defeat FAN in any reasonably short period of time. FAN leadership urged their membership to accept the peace offers.

Shortly afterward, the Initiative reengaged their FAN targets and began an all out nuclear war against FAN, with an untold number of nukes being launched in both directions. Because of the nature of the war, and the way in which nuclear hostilities began, FAN would drive the war well into the coming months and thus making it one of the longest wars in Cybernations History. Only days after the conflict began, FAN would find itself outside of Sanction Status and the NPO would drop to third behind GOONS and GPA. It would not be until late August when the Cyberverse would finally start to see the ferocity of the war subside.

Part 12: Eye of the Storm

With the FAN-WUT war occupying the thoughts of most of the major alliances, and indeed, practically everyone with an ear tuned to Cybernations politics, the month of July would see very little aside from the war that trumped all others in terms of nuclear devastation. What wasn’t initially obvious to the rest of the Cyberverse, however, was the stress that the war put on the Initiative. While they did a good job of projecting an image of control, the war was a heavy burden upon the World Unity Treaty signatories. Despite a rapid decline in alliance rank, FAN was able to inflict significant damage and would continue to do so for the remainder of the conflict. In the mean time, doubt began to surface among certain Initiative alliances about the correctness of their move. Once seen as the most steadfast and staunchly allied alliances in the Cyberverse, the signatories of the World Unity Treaty were beginning to show signs of polarization both in private and in public.

While the war between the Initiative and FAN certainly received the lion’s share of attention on the Open World Forums, another much less significant event managed to steal the spotlight for a few days: on the first of July, trotsky announced the reformation of the International Communist Party. The ICP was once a Sanctioned alliance, and had played a major role in the Maroon Wars of late 2006. After nearly a year, many of its former members had decided that the ICP, once the most successful leftist alliance, was due for a return to the world stage. Despite reassurances that the new ICP would take a much less assertive role in Cybernations politics, it would never be able to shake the animosity it incurred in its previous form.

Although the ICP had allegedly secured promises from both Kaiser Martens of Norden Verein and the Emperor of the New Pacific order that they would not interfere in the reformation, Norden Verein, along with the Golden Sabers, soon made it clear they would not tolerate another incarnation of the ICP, issuing a joint declaration of war on the ICP on July fifth. Two days later, the ICP surrendered and disbanded. The Casus Belli offered by the two aggressors was: “its [the ICP] existence defies the laws of nature.” Others would conjecture that the Norden Verein, comprised of many Maroon Wars veterans, simply could not put aside old grudges and allow the ICP to be reformed. It was not until much later when Kaiser Martens announced his resignation from Norden Verein that he would offer the following explanation for the war: “for the hell of it.” Many months later, Arcades057, who had been a member of Golden Sabres at the time of the conflict, would state that he had to persuade Kaiser Martens to cooperate with the attack, and that he “had to convince him to agree with the plan,” suggesting that Norden Verein may not have been the principal proponents of the war. Nevertheless, the reformed ICP would prove no match for the stigma of its past.

Norden Verein remained as assertive as they ever were, and this continued into the latter parts of July. The German Empire, a newly formed alliance drawing many of its traditions and inspiration from the fictional “Nation of Germany”, was approached by Norden Verein with the intention of creating diplomatic relations. Although the two alliances shared a fundamentally different heritage, they both seemed to agree that they shared many similarities, and at first, strong relations between the two seemed inevitable. However, the Kaiser of TGE suddenly broke off relations between the two alliances, stating that he felt threatened by Norden Verein’s aggressiveness. Norden Verein’s leadership took personal affront to inflammatory remarks made by a TGE member causing an immediate cessation of diplomatic relations and Norden Verein’s refusal to recognize TGE as an alliance. TGE soon made an apology on the Open World Forums, but words could not bridge the divide that now separated the two alliances. It would be many months before the conflict would prove to be too much for Norden Verein to chew.

Part 13: The Road Less Traveled

As August descended upon the Cyberverse, the Initiative was still the premier power on planet Bob. The war with FAN had entered the long drawn out stage of guerrilla warfare which typically characterizes such conflicts, but FAN now presented no more than an occasional diplomatic nuisance on the Open World Forum. While the war had certainly caused extensive damage to the Initiative, particularly the New Pacific Order back in June and July, there was no real reason to doubt the Initiative’s unity.

Indeed, the Initiative was able to handle the first major event of August with ease. The alliance of Valhalla had never gotten on well with the Legion, as its founders had split from the alliance during an elections dispute. The decision by the Legion to accept a former Valhalla member, Doland Grimnoir, soured them to the point of fighting. And when it appeared that the Legion was spying on Valhalla, war was inevitable, and outnumbered and outgunned, the Legion surrendered within a matter of days. It was another victory for the Initiative, and they betrayed no signs of struggle.

However, from an internal perspective, things were much different. Beginning at the end of the Third Great War, the collective philosophies of the various Initiative alliances began to diverge. While the traditional allies in the New Pacific Order and the New Polar Order continued their use of comparatively more formal methods of diplomacy and a stricter comportment in the forums with regards their members, some alliances began to take a more casual stance toward diplomacy by following a less stilted and more spontaneous approach. Those alliances, particularly the Goon Order of Neutral Shoving and \m/, began to realize their similarities and began moving in a direction that brought them closer together.

With the security afforded by the dominance of the Initiative, GOONS undertook a number of controversial ventures predicated on their unassailable position. Shark Week was probably the most controversial, in which they attacked people who they felt compromised the quality of posting on the forums. They claimed total authority over the black team and humiliated nations they decided to tech raid. Their policies earned them few friends and many enemies. These policies had the effect of polarizing the Initiative into two separate groups with very few alliances left in the middle, and certainly none with any significant clout in the bloc.

Their safe position, however, began to crumble beginning with a major controversy in the middle of August. It had been long known that some of the moderators of the Open World Forums maintained separate and independent nations that were, under no circumstances, ever to break the line between moderator and leader. It was, therefore, an extremely sensitive matter, and oftentimes leaders were condemned for simply speculating on the identities of the moderators. When it was alleged that a high ranking member of \m/’s government was feeding logs of moderation discussions to his alliance, a major controversy erupted in which accusations of moderator bias and speculation of mod identities were openly discussed on public forums. Because of the extremely sensitive material being discussed, and the fact that leaders could be banned for simple speculation, many high ranking members of GOONS and \m/ who had speculated or accused the moderators of bias were subsequently banished indefinitely from the Cyberverse. Two major powers of the Initiative suddenly found themselves with leaders who were unable to appear in public, and who could not legally lead a nation in the Cyberverse. “Modgate,” or the “Black Friday Bannings” as the entire ordeal was later named, would prove to be a major fracturing point between the Initiative alliances, particularly alienating the GGA and NpO.

On August 9th, 2007, Ivan Moldavi, the onetime Emperor of the New Pacific Order, made an announcement on the Open World Forums. In it, he asked that “the leadership of FAN contact me regarding the terms that were provided to them a couple of days ago with the status of their passing.” In it, he not only revealed the fact that the NPO was negotiating with FAN for peace (a notion considered laughable at the time,) he signed the short message with: “Ivan Moldavi, Emperor of the New Pacific Order.” The announcement was followed by a string of posts by high ranking NPO members, including ex-Emperor Trotsky’s revenge, confirming that Ivan Moldavi was indeed the Emperor of the New Pacific Order once again. But as is often said about Cybernations, nothing is ever as it seems on the outside.

Five days after Ivan Moldavi announced his ascension to the throne, Trotsky’s Revenge posted an announcement stating that he had reclaimed the throne of the NPO, Ivan Moldavi was expelled as a traitor to the New Pacific Order, and Electron Sponge, Emperor of the New Polar Order, had been condemned over his support of Ivan Moldavi who had since joined the NpO. The thread erupted into a profound dissonance of personality conflicts as one side blamed and bashed the other. The NPO forums, having been owned by Ivan, were moved to a different server. The following days would see multiple alliances declaring support for either side of the dispute, most notably GOONS declaring support for Trotsky’s Revenge and the NpO declaring support for Ivan Moldavi. Despite all of the commotion and events that were played out in the previous five days, the NPO and NpO would at least partially reconcile, issuing joint statements that there would be no military conflicts between the two, and later, that the two sides had reconciled.

Ivan Moldavi, while he was still in command, pursued a policy of not communicating with the leaders of GOONS and \m/ who had been banned from the Cyberverse, citing personal ethics conflicts. Despite the fact that TrotskysRevenge would later retake the throne, the “Moldavi Rebellion” had further convinced them that the relationship between the Initiative alliances was not as impervious as they had believed.

At the time, it was believed that the Moldavi Rebellion was a mere footnote in the history of Cybernations, that beyond being the first time a Pacifican power dispute became public, it was merely a footnote in the continuing deterioration of relations between Initiative alliances. History would prove it far more significant, but for the time being other potential repercussions of the event were overshadowed by the effective collapse of the Initiative bloc.

The day after the Moldavi Rebellion took place, the Goon Order of Neutral Shoving, \m/, The Phoenix Federation, Gen[m]ay, the Golden Sabres and the recently formed Mushroom Kingdom would announce the signing of a new bloc, The Unjust Path. Formed by four significant members of the Initiative, the bloc would create even greater tensions within the Initiative, and the addition of the controversial Mushroom Kingdom, which was popularly seen as a reformation of LUEnited Nations, further exacerbated the issues. Shortly thereafter, the New Polar Order and the GGA left the Initiative, stating their belief GOONS and \m/ should have been punished for the events of Modgate.

As a result of the formation of the Unjust Path and the seceding of the NpO and GGA from the Initiative (of which GOONS and \m/ were still members,) the last days of August were characterized by an omnipresent sense of uneasiness. Those who had experienced the period preceding the major great wars of the past recognized the familiar feeling of tension in the air. Official diplomatic responses feigned ignorance of the oncoming storm, but their attempts of suppression had no effects. Nearing the end of August, the proverbial explosion needed naught but a spark. As August faded into Septemeber, the Cyberverse buckled down and prepared for the worst.

Part 14: Highway to Hell

When the Cyberverse entered September, it did so with the expectation by most of the general public that war was inevitable. It didn’t take long for the alliances involved to prove them right, as months of internal power struggle spilled out into the public eye. Like all major wars, the initial casus belli was minor, nothing more than a pretext for the fight all participant alliances desired. The proceedings began with a Polar protectorate, the Brotherhood of the Storm (BotS), and the Genmay alliance, as well as a dispute over tech raiding between GOONS and GGA.

Shortly before things escalated, there was a disagreement over a Genmay ghost that went bad. The [M] ambassador was banned from the BotS boards and flaming ensued between both sides. Ostensibly BotS then raided Genmay nations, but in reality the supposed BotS member committing the crime was a Genmay multi. BotS refused and posted surrender terms of their own for Genmay, with Emperor Sponge telling [M] to “think real carefully before replying,” indicating a willingness to escalate the conflict if Genmay did not back down. They didn’t, and NpO responded with a Declaration of War. At the same time, GOONS and GGA were in dispute over whether a member of a GOONS protectorate, BAPS, had tech raided a GGA member. Although GOONS stated the target of the raid was a Brown nation with an alliance affiliation of none, and that a GGA government member had confirmed he wasn't a member. GGA Triumvir Bilrow responded that the government member had been mistaken, and that as the keeper of GGA's roster he knew that the nation in question was a member who had changed his alliance affiliation for no known reason. He demanded reparations for the attack or there would be consequences. Talks ground to a halt and on September 10th GGA announced a recognition of hostilities with GOONS.

The two sides turned out as the Unjust Highway, centered around the UjP, and the ~ Coalition, centered around the Blue Leadership Ensuring Treaty (BLEU) and the Hanseatic League, with a large number of independents joining in as a result. The sheer number of independent alliances joining the ~ side demonstrated the discontent with UjP alliances and their use (or misuse, depending on one’s opinion) of their position in the game. The NPO and TOP, caught in between the two sides, opted to sever their ties with the Unjust Highway alliances, with the former attacking GOLD for aiding FAN in their ongoing war with the Order, while TOP remained entirely uninvolved.

Although ~ started out proclaiming their intent to fight a nuclear war, the Unjust Highway sought to use the relatively close margin in nukes to its advantage. Where the Unjust Highway had plenty of nukes, however, they were outnumbered in nations by an almost 2 to 1 margin and more than 2 to 1 in nation strength at the war’s peak. While the Highway held out for about a week, the superior numbers of the ~ side began to tell and the first cracks in the UJH showed through on September 15th when the AiD alliance became the first Highway alliance to surrender. Two days later an old face returned to the fray when the VE reformed and declared war upon the UJH alliances. They joined in just in time to see the war begin to draw to a close.

Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Unjust Highway was able to hold out and fight effectively for over a week, even forcing the surrender of an ~ alliance. But the war took a heavy toll and it wasn't long before there were alliances looking for a way out. The Highway fell apart on the 17th, when GOONS Prime Minister banned member made OOC attacks against Bilrow of the GGA on an offsite forum. The incident led to TPF’s decision to withdraw from the war, and they were short after followed by Mushroom Kingdom. A number of Highway alliances requested and were granted ceasefires over the course of the next day, and on September 19th Unjust Highway nations began surrendering en masse. Excluded from an easy surrender, however, were Genmay and \m/. The alliances were already unstable internally, and facing the choice of either accepting crippling terms or continuing the fight, they instead took the third option of disbandment. By September 23rd, the only remaining UJH alliances were GOONS and SPAM, with the latter disbanding shortly thereafter. On a semi-related note, September 24th saw the end of the conflict between FAN and NPO, after a three month guerilla war, leaving the Federation in ruins.

With the end of the Unjust Highway, the New Pacific Order found itself in a precarious position, as, it now turns out, was Electron Sponge’s intention. Although it was not known to the general public at the time, the fallout of the Moldavi Rebellion ran deeper than a contributing factor in the Initiative’s fall. While it was not actually said in private for months and would not be known publically for even longer, Sponge was not willing to forgive and forget the coup. In response, he spent the next month creating a coalition of allies and baiting Genmay through their protectorate, BotS. Although he succeeded eliminating the NPO’s allies on the UJP side, he failed in his goal of isolating the New Pacific Order. With this information limited to the highest levels of the Orders, it would be some time before any of the tension between the two sides would become public.

October was quiet, with two major event of note. The first concerned two long time rivals dating back to the Maroon Wars, Norden Verein and LSF.Kaiser Martens, emperor of NoV, declared that an LSF member had nuked a NoV and Nueva Vida (NV) nation, and that as a result they declared war on the alliance with the intention of destroying. While able to quickly cripple the alliance, they were unable to force them to disband and the NoV-LSF War dragged on for several months before an eventual conclusion.

The second concerned an incident where an IRC user had mockingly impersonated Bilrow, similar to the attacks from banned member. The lone GPA moderator at the time refused to ban the impersonator, leading to accusations that the GPA condoned OOC attacks. At the same time, a GPA member had sent $3 million to a GOONS nation, and the GPA response to both events was deemed underwhelming, leading to NPO, GGA, NpO, TPF, IRON, TOP, ODN, the Legion, and MCXA all had their signatures removed from the GPA’s Declaration of Neutrality. These removals would become important in time to come.

Since the fall of the Initiative after the Unjust War, no replacement bloc had formed over the course of these months, with the web of treaties tying together the Order and their allies. This loose web must have been unsatisfactory to the alliances involved, because on November 8th the MADP bloc One Vision (1V) was signed, consisting of the NPO, NpO, GGA, and IRON. It was the first bloc to come out of the postwar period, and indicated NPO was anything but isolated.

November also saw two alliances fall from grace, the Legion and Norden Verein. The Legion’s Prime Minister had been conducting a covert operation with an ex-Prime Minister to try and overthrow the leader of Valhalla, noWedge. When the plot was uncovered, the Cabinet voted to disband. Apparently, though, the vote was illegal, and for a number of days no one was sure what would happen, until it was eventually decided they would pay reps for an undecided length of time and would accept an NPO viceroy. The other alliance was Norden Verein, whose relations with the NPO had been faltering for some time. When three members left and announced their intent to wage war upon the NPO for crimes against the Cyberverse, NoV sabotaged themselves in failing to adequately disown the members while several NoVers publically supported their efforts. NoV had their treaties canceled upon them and left to deal with LSF alone.

In December, what had been for a month a loose coalition centered around One Vision gave way to the largest bloc in CN’s existence, the Continuum. Consisting of the New Pacific Order, The Order of the Paradox, Independent Republic of Orange Nations, Mostly Harmless Alliance, Sparta, The Grämlins, Multicolored Cross-X Alliance, FOK, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Old Guard, Valhalla, and the Phoenix Federation, the Continuum solidified the dominance of the Order and their allies for more than a year.

Also, notably, the Continuum excluded the New Polar Order, which became a private bone of contention for NpO with their Pacifican brethren. As it turned out, the NpO was excluded from the Continuum as a result of Polar’s aggressive political maneuverings that led to the Unjust War, which unnerved most of the Continuum alliances. It was during a discussion between Emperor Revenge of the NPO and Emperor Sponge of NpO that Sponge revealed he orchestrated the Unjust War so as to send a message to Pacifica. With this knowledge, it becomes clear that the Moldavi Rebellion was a turning point in relations between the Orders, and marked the beginning of the end for that relationship, which nonetheless survived for some time. Going into 2008, the Cyberverse was once again under the domination of a major alliance bloc.

Edited July 31, 2009 by John Michaels

[John Michaels]

reserved

[cjav0]

bugger I was readin those big red letter and evil thoughts entered my mind.

[John Michaels]

reserved yet again

[John Michaels]

bugger I was readin those big red letter and evil thoughts entered my mind.

what is this i don't even

facepalm

EDIT: Is there a post characters limit on Invision Pro, meaning I'm just dumb about this? If I am someone is welcome to delete the reserved posts, if not please don't touch them.

Edited May 12, 2009 by John Michaels

[Vilien]

This is an excellent idea. Our history needs updating.

[Heracles the Great]

Epic wall of text there sir - I wish you well in this project

[Sooner]

John, you might want to create a wiki article and break it up into chapters.

[ChairmanHal]

The history reads as though Modgate preceded the Moldavi Rebellion. The opposite is actually true. Support for Trotsky's Revenge by as of yet unbanned \m/ (mostly behind the scenes) and GOONS (privately and publicly) leadership further contributed to a major schism between Polaris and its supporters in the Initiative and GOONS, \m/ and its supporters, though signs of division between Polaris and various other members of the Initiative were already in evidence in the wind down from the FAN War (http://www.gtlt.net/nobodies.txt).

[Owned-You]

This brings back so many pleasant memories, thank you for bringing it back.

[brass]

Very well written, factual, and unbiased. A refreshing change of the other histories I've read.

[Ryan Greenberg]

Great Idea! Especially since it's about to get interesting with the Unjust War about to start.

Edited May 12, 2009 by Ryan Greenberg

[New Frontier]

For the last damn time, ONOS was not in the CoaLUEtion. Hell, we weren't even a public alliance at the time of the war.

)):

[Voodoo Nova]

You know, every time you post it gets longer

Nonetheless, great job. Takes a lot of dedication to write all of this out for a game's community.

[Alter Leader Nabla]

Lacks a lot of Information over IRON.

here are a few things I remember

IRON was previously a "Independent" Alliance close to Neutral, after the pressure it had known to choose a side during GWIII, it was planned to get out of it through an ODP With ONOS but it was never posted due to ONOS stupidly spying.

IRON effectively got out of Independency by attacking FAN through its not yet announced but signed treaty with MCXA, effectively getting IRON out of Neutrality.

Also, I was said in OPSEC during the GOONS war that it was previously planned for GOONS and FAN to ally during the FAN-WUT war but that GOONS betrayed it. Not sure whether this was true or propaganda but it did go in private military channels.

for all that goes after, well, we got bigger, we went allies with NpO against UJP. As far as I know, IRON has been called Bandwagoner, RON (FAN-WUT), Meatshield (UJW) and cowards, RON again (Karma War). so it pretty much sums up the fact we have been the best alliance making the best moves so far

[Inquisitor Tolkien]

Naba: It's not an alliance-by-alliance history. It's as generalized summary of as much of CN history as possible, and thus has no room for alliance bios.

[Caliph]

Lacks a lot of Information over IRON.

here are a few things I remember

IRON was previously a "Independent" Alliance close to Neutral, after the pressure it had known to choose a side during GWIII, it was planned to get out of it through an ODP With ONOS but it was never posted due to ONOS stupidly spying.

IRON effectively got out of Independency by attacking FAN through its not yet announced but signed treaty with MCXA, effectively getting IRON out of Neutrality.

Also, I was said in OPSEC during the GOONS war that it was previously planned for GOONS and FAN to ally during the FAN-WUT war but that GOONS betrayed it. Not sure whether this was true or propaganda but it did go in private military channels.

for all that goes after, well, we got bigger, we went allies with NpO against UJP. As far as I know, IRON has been called Bandwagoner, RON (FAN-WUT), Meatshield (UJW) and cowards, RON again (Karma War). so it pretty much sums up the fact we have been the best alliance making the best moves so far

It also didn't help matters, during the UJW, that \m/ came to you about an MDP out of the blue.

Regarding the UJW, I might be writing something up and sending it in. We'll see how much I get distracted tonight.

[Ardus]

Good luck John at your... have we gotten to 10 attempts yet? I've lost count.

[bobjohnny]

Can I has a tl;dr?

[zigbigadorlou]

Yes srsly

you should have a tl;dr for each section

cause at the moment, that is one crosseyedly-big wall-of-text

[Shodemofi-NPO]

If you don't care enough about the history to read it, then don't.

[WalkerNinja]

If I'm not mistaken, this might be more appropriately placed in World Affairs since it is IC content.

Also, if there's anything here that you care to incorporate, feel free.

[crazyisraelie]

Welcome back John! I'm glad to see your face around again.

I'm glad that is back in action. I hope to see the complete history soon!

[brass]

Can I has a tl;dr?

The above is about as absolutely compact of summary you will find that covers the major events from first 1.5 years of CN. There could be much more detail, though it looks like anything edited out could show bias.

Most Cliff's Notes versions you may find that cover nearly 2 years most likely have a hidden agenda.