Remember the Auric Armada?

[King Vences]

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[img]http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080221003402/cybernations/images/5/53/Auric_Armada_Flag.png[/img]

[size="6"]Hello. My name is King Vences. I am a failed leader.[/size]

[/center]
Some of you may remember a small alliance by the name of the Auric Armada. We ceased to exist on July 21st 2008, almost exactly 2 years ago from the day this was posted. The story behind us is that we were infiltrated by FAN and taken down from the inside. Well, it's time to give the full story. FAN might have killed us, maybe they didn't. Read on to decide for yourself. I no longer have anything to lose. Please trust me, I will be completely honest whilst telling my story.

At the time, I was the sole Triumvir of Auric Armada (Or Au for short.) The story is long, the details are many, but the facts are thrown around senselessly and carelessly. It's about time this story comes to a close. I'd like to give the full story here, now. Considering FAN has moved on from it's supposedly endless war with NPO and all that jazz, now is the time to post. I've been waiting months.

What happened before Au was born is of little relevance here. Auric Armada started out as a merge between The White Delegation (of TPF fame) and the Global Republic of Allied Nations (also of TPF fame, Overlord's Protectorate Pact). Afterwards, Au itself joined OPP. A month later, we announced our flip to the yellow sphere. Slayer99 wasn't all too happy about this but he did understand where we were coming from and wished us the best of luck. Time passed and as we graduated out of OPP, we sealed a treaty with TPF (MDoAP if I recall correctly) and announced our [url="http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?showtopic=21647"]MADP with Defense Confederation[/url] who were our brothers in OPP. This treaty will have more significance later on... when it gets cancelled. Keep reading.

Then begins the REAL story. We announced our shift to the Yellow sphere. I couldn't find the thread, but here's the announcement:

[font="Arial"][quote][/font][font="Arial"]Au's move to yellow was done in and effort to bring about the resurection of the yellow sphere, for the longest time yellow had been a wasteland full of dead or dying alliances, exilled from the rest of the world they would be left there to wither away and die.

So Au stepped up to the plate and took the challenge of bringing back light to a sphere full of darkness, and the changes and impact we have had already have been notible , with many many more come the future of yellow looks bright for the first time in ages.[/quote]

*****
[b]RUMOR BUST:[/b] Auric Armada was planted by NPO to take over the Yellow sphere. [i]LOL, no. We came here because Yellow was dismal and alone and we had a realistic chance of thriving there. It was all in our plan to be a great alliance. We had nothing to do with NPO.[/i]
*****[/font]

[font="Arial"]We made the move with our friends in Deck of Cards. Later, Defense Confederation came and joined us, along with Veritas Aequitas, another OPP ally of ours. Soon after, other alliances like Pyramid joined Yellow. All of us in Auric Armada thought we were doing an excellent job at reviving Yellow. So many of us joined Yellow at the same time, but this would later turn out to be one of those cases of too many, too soon.

This was when the other two triumvirs departed Auric Armada, and left me alone. I was assigned an assistant, but he also quit and left later on.

Tensions built immediately. Yellow was divided into 3 pieces. Auric Armada and Deck of Cards were one tier as the two strongest alliances in Yellow. Defense Confederation cancelled our MADP between us and allied themselves with Pyramid.

*****
[b]RUMOR BUST:[/b] DefCon cancelled on Au on bad terms. [i] It has been revealed that DefCon cancelled on Au because of the departure of leadership from Au. DefCon knew that there was trouble brewing in Auric Armada and didn't want to be involved. DefCon also realized that Au was become more and more attached to DoC. At the time, DefCon and DoC had some sort of vendetta against each other.[/i]
*****

This was the 2nd tier. FAN itself was tier 3. ROCK didn't really have relations with any of us so they won't be added into the equation here. This was when Yellow transformed from an attempt at unity to a total and complete power grab. The Au government, including myself, were rather concerned by the announcement of the [url="http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?showtopic=25395"]Goldenrod Accords[/url] (also known as Yellow Sphereority). At the time of the announcement, however, Au and DoC were working on our very own bloc, but it wasn't the PIAT bloc that DefCon and Py had announced. We were working more agressively. We had a defense/offense bloc in the works, but since we couldn't convince any other alliances other than Au and DoC to sign, we put the project on standby. (We wanted at least 3 signatories. DefCon would've been the perfect addition as the 3rd largest yellow alliance. They refused to join on grounds that they don't want to be allied so closely with DoC.) We at Au felt threatened by such a bloc. We knew it wasn't something very big, that it didn't physically threaten us, but the Goldenrod Accords were beginning to alienate us.

Time passed on, and running Au was becoming unbearable. I grew bored... I wanted something to make running an alliance fun again. I needed partners. I needed that sort of satisfaction you get after announcing something big. Some of the guys in Yellow began to mention the Yellow Senate. One thing led to another and we were daring each other to sanction Brass, the FAN senator in yellow. I agreed to do it, and I did. I was very happy with myself afterwards. FAN naturally began to question me as to why I would do such a thing. I guess my only reasoning was "You're FAN", but that wasn't good enough. Brass sanctioned me and unsanctioned himself, and then I sanctioned him again, the cycle just went on and on.

*****
[b]RUMOR BUST:[/b] NPO asked Auric Armada to sanction FAN. [i]This is only partially true. I sanctioned FAN on my own accord, yet I did have a small influence from NPO. I was becoming personally friendly with the upper group of NPO, and was encouraged to sanction Brass.[/i]
*****

Then, the Golden Sabres War ensued. Someone took a screenshot of the Golden Sabres website. The front page encouraged their members to vote for Brass for the Senate seat. Some of you may remember what the screenshot looked like. I took that shot. Our diplomat from NPO made the discovery and relayed the information to me. I took the shot, marked out a couple things, then passed it on to Bigwoody of TORN. Arrangements were made, talks were had, and we all engaged in the [url="http://cybernations.wikia.com/wiki/Golden_Sabres_War"]Golden Sabres War[/url]. My reasoning for joining the war was that we could gain a serious public relations boost. I personally wanted to get closer to TORN, as they were probably the most adored alliance at the time. I did succeed in securing a PEACE treaty with them.

Then, the whole FAN spy incident took grip. I had a new member by the name of Bad JuJu join us. At the time, Auric Armada was in a dismal state of disrepair with about a 10% activity rate on the forums, and with only 2 government positions filled out of 8. After some minor questioning, I was still very fuzzy on his past. He was hesitant to give many details, but considering how bad a shape were were in, we needed help. After a week or two, he proved to be a very active, very involved worked. I didn't want to put someone as new as him into a very top position, so I gave him the lowest of the 5 departmental position: Director of Moderation and Security. It's very ironic that he would later be discovered to be a "spy".

Eventually, I was approached on IRC by Umbrae Noctem of NPO. It was so long ago that I don't remember how we got in official contact in the first place. We received a diplomat from NPO, and I personally traveled to their forums and tried to be diplomatic. It is my belief that NPO saw Auric as more of an opportunity than an ally. I requested an MDP from NPO to seal the deal. I wanted the rest of CN to know that were throwing the dice with high rollers. That never happened of course, because a few weeks afterwards, Bilrow approached me and requested my presence in another channel...

We had a long talk. Bilrow, Umbrae, and one other guy I can't remember his name, were accusing Bad JuJu of being a FAN reroll nation. He was correct. When I went to check his nation, he was at war and had changed his alliance affiliation to FAN. I was honestly pissed off, shocked, appalled, outraged. No longer were we on the way to recovery, but to complete ruin.

[quote]<Bilrow> The way we found it was our constant watching of FAN aid that was sent and received. We would then backtrack and follow that aid along it's path. Doing so we found a number of common nations being used to "funnel" aid to FAN without it being sent directly or being obvious by a cursory glance.[/quote]

It's all about public relations. I feared the serious backlash that would come after having to announce such an event on the CN Forums. I didn't want to remain in an alliance which everyone saw as pathetic or downright stupid. Being the age that I was (15 at the time) I had little experience with anything.

I was then approched by "Umbrae" again. He broke the news that there were 8 other spies from FAN in Au. I didn't believe him at all, but I have done nothing wrong from trusting him in the past. I immediately declared war on several of them and ordered other members of Au to do the same. I even allowed other nations to declare war on some of them. Later, I discovered that "Umbrae" was being impersonated by a FAN nation, identity still unknown. I had declared war on 4 innocent nations. (1 of the nations accused was actually FAN however. I knew he was FAN. I refused to accept him, but he said he no longer wanted anything to do with FAN. He wanted to play the game and enjoy it rather than live in peace. He joined much sooner than Bad JuJu did, however.) I posted [url="http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?showtopic=27942"]THIS[/url] thread in reaction. This turns out to be my biggest mistake ever. Later in that thread, Bad JuJu posted something revealing a similar spy in DoC who was also under attack.

Let's backtrack a little here. Before this post, before Bad JuJu was revealed, I recall a personal query with Bad JuJu discussing this very member of DoC. Bad JuJu said that he had a friend in DoC that he'd like to bring to Auric. He began telling me several details about DoC switching to the Aqua sphere and ditching Yellow. I asked how he knew this and says that his friend in DoC had told him. I was very suspicious indeed, but checking his friend's nation, he had 25 nukes. Since our alliance was crumbling day by day, anything that would have boosted our stats would have kept my moral up. Later in the thread linked above, Bad JuJu reveals these very logs, accusing myself of being a spy since I accepted this information and I was also revealed requesting that this other friend of Bad JuJu's be brought into Auric. Did I make a mistake there? Hell yes I did.

I was asked to clear up this matter by NPO. I was asked to tell to truth that I was not spying on DoC, our closest ally. I messed up the wording in the post quite bad. The logs are located [url="http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?showtopic=27942&view=findpost&p=743498"]HERE[/url]. My very poorly worded response is located [url="http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?showtopic=27942&view=findpost&p=743507"]HERE[/url].

*****
[b]RUMOR BUST:[/b] I was myself spying on DoC as I accepted information about them. [i]No. That post where I apparently condemned myself was very poorly written. When I said "[/i][/font][i]That meant "Dont tell anyone else you dont get stamped a spy and start an incident."", I was trying to tell him that he was doing something wrong. I said "don't tell anyone else" not to hide that we were spying, but to keep the leaked information from DoC from leaking any further. We were close friends with DoC and I didn't want their secret plans to go public anymore than they already have accidentally.[/i]
*****

Now fast forward to where Bad JuJu was kicked out of Au. Nukes were launched, and a period of calmness fell over Auric later. It was best to lay low for a while. A month or so later, I put up a poll about whether or not we should disband. Apparently someone in FAN was able to see this, as I had banned Bad JuJu, and Bad JuJu posted on the CNFs that were were "disbanding" and began to rant about his successes in "destroying us from the inside". Also bad for public relations don't you think? We never did disband. I talked with ZoomZoomZoom, leader of DefCon (who is still yellow) at the time, and asked him to accept members of Au. The merger commenced. The announcement of the merger is located [url="http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?showtopic=28823"]HERE[/url].

*****
[b]RUMOR BUST:[/b] Au was defeated by FAN from the inside by a FAN spy. [i]Despite all that I've told in the story above, FAN had little involvement in my decision to merge Au. Auric was already unrepairable and inactive beyond belief. The whole FAN Spy incident was just another incident that showed why I no longer wanted to be leader of an alliance. I made the decision to merge Auric into DefCon as a sign of apathy. I simply didn't want to run Auric anymore, and there was nobody else in government who I deemed a good choice to take my position.[/i]
*****

*****
[b]RUMOR BUST:[/b] Bad JuJu was actually a FAN spy. [i] Maybe. Again, despite what you've read above, it is my personal belief that FAN had no knowledge that Bad JuJu was an ex-FAN nation. FAN has always proved themselves capable of taking advantage of everything possible to smear the reputations of others. I believe that once Bad JuJu was caught, he reported to FAN with his adventures. Soon after, FAN discovered what Bad JuJu had done, they saw this as a brilliant chance to make themselves look bigger and better than they are. FAN embraced the whole event and made it look like they were involved. Unless FAN decides to be honest and let us know whether or not they had any knowledge of Bad JuJu being a FAN nation before he reported to them, there is no way of knowing if he was actually a spy, or someone who simply took advantage of the situation. If FAN says "no", then he was not a spy and this whole thing could be considered an accident. If FAN says yes, then Auric Armada was infiltrated by spies... but not destroyed by them.
*****

This is my story. This is what I experienced. If you remember this whole incident as it happened first hand, please let me know you're thoughts on what happened.

I would like to answer all questions now.

This whole thread is written in a rather short amount of time. Please excuse any grammatical errors. If some part of it is just plain inconsistent, please let me know so that I may make edits.

[b]Cybernations is a game. Games are supposed to be for fun. Although I may have made some of the wrongest decisions ever playing this game, such as those that I made while in Auric Armada, I did have the funnest time dealing with them. As I look back to the past, I thank CN for this moment in history while in Auric Armada. No matter how stupid I looked back then, I had fun doing it, and that's what matters in the end.[/b]

FAN, thank you for the lulz. Auric Armada, may you rest in peace.

tl;dr for Longbowe: I screwed up.

Thank you for reading.

Edited July 17, 2010 by King Vences

[rabonnobar]

Why hello there Vences.

EDIT: Now that I've read it all: interesting to see DefCon mentioned in a topic, hah. Also, mega-lol at us (DefCon, Au, etc.) being planted by NPO.

Edited July 17, 2010 by rabonnobar

[Titus Pullo]

To answer the title question: No.

Otherwise, tl;dr.

[mythicknight]

Hey thar Vences

[Rebel Virginia]

[color="#0000FF"]So to sum it up, you sanction Brass of FAN for the "lulz" and are surprised when FAN goes after you. Furthermore, knowing that FAN is working subtly against you, trust any query without bothering to confirm that the person who said something to you was actually the person you thought you were talking to, leading to you attacking your own alliance in a brilliant display of incompetence. So, should we really be surprised that Au disbanded?[/color]

[Alistair Thorrington]

How enthralling.

[Prodigal Moon]

That all seems pretty consistent with what was posted publicly at the time

[maxnmike]

[quote name='King Vences' date='17 July 2010 - 12:20 PM' timestamp='1279397996' post='2376179']
Then, the Golden Sabres War ensued. Someone took a screenshot of the Golden Sabres website. The front page encouraged their members to vote for Brass for the Senate seat. Some of you may remember what the screenshot looked like. I took that shot. Our diplomat from NPO made the discovery and relayed the information to me. [b]I took the shot, marked out a couple things[/b], then passed it on to Bigwoody of TORN.
[/quote]

So, was one of the things you marked out the part where it said to vote for RoseBlood or Brass? You know, RoseBlood, the leader of Golden Sabres.

[supercoolyellow]

Ohhh this brings back memories of my Old Pyramid Days. BTW, I still attribute the demise of Py to FAN. Fan threated to spy on us, and our leaders freaked, and stopped recruiting/admissions. From then on we just stagnated into oblivion. I could be wrong though, I was very noob back then.

[bigwoody]

[quote name='maxnmike' date='17 July 2010 - 04:17 PM' timestamp='1279401421' post='2376243']
So, was one of the things you marked out the part where it said to vote for RoseBlood or Brass? You know, RoseBlood, the leader of Golden Sabres.
[/quote]
http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?showtopic=23941

The imageshack picture has since expired, but I believe you're doing a little history re-writing. Though it doesn't really matter, everyone who saw the forums at the time saw it.

[Zoomzoomzoom]

[quote name='rabonnobar' date='17 July 2010 - 03:25 PM' timestamp='1279398289' post='2376183']
Why hello there Vences.

EDIT: Now that I've read it all: interesting to see DefCon mentioned in a topic, hah. Also, mega-lol at us (DefCon, Au, etc.) being planted by NPO.
[/quote]


DefCon was never infiltrated. If we were we were never made aware of it. When we took in Au nations we only allowed those that originally came from TWD and GRAN.

As for your post KV - VA joined yellow long after Au disappeared off the map. DefCon was the final alliance to join the fun b/c Pyramid was founded on yellow.

As for why you're bringing up micro alliance drama on yellow from 2 years ago...idk. We were all dumb and didn't know what we were doing. Nobody remembers and nobody cares. I held a grudge against DoC because I could and because I had the backing of TPF. FAN's infiltration of your alliance was nothing brilliant or bold. You were desperate and we were just looking for lulz. Then it became aware that we could benefit from your demise, etc.

Additionally, NPO attempted to sweet talk us all. It didn't work though. None of us wanted to be their !@#$%*es. They kept attempting to bridge the gap between all of us to unify us in an attempt to take away the FAN senate seat.

Yellow is a political hell hole and always will be.

[maxnmike]

[quote name='bigwoody' date='17 July 2010 - 02:58 PM' timestamp='1279407502' post='2376373']
http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?showtopic=23941

The imageshack picture has since expired, but I believe you're doing a little history re-writing. Though it doesn't really matter, everyone who saw the forums at the time saw it.
[/quote]


bigwoddy, I don't know what the image you received said nor do I care. I do however know what the announcement said on our forums. I know because I wrote it and it said to vote for RoseBlood or Brass. In addition if any of you had bothered to check you would have found out that we had 27-28 nations on yellow and that RoseBlood had between 17 - 20 senate votes at the time. I doubt that you will believe me on this but I don't really care. What you think matters not at all to me.

[mythicknight]

Then why even bring it up? I remember the shot. Brass's name was there. Fun time.

Edit: Someone uploaded it to the CN Wiki: http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080528064542/cybernations/images/8/83/GSFANSenator.jpg

Edited July 18, 2010 by mythicknight

[bigwoody]

[quote name='maxnmike' date='17 July 2010 - 07:20 PM' timestamp='1279412421' post='2376456']
bigwoddy, I don't know what the image you received said nor do I care. I do however know what the announcement said on our forums. I know because I wrote it and it said to vote for RoseBlood or Brass. In addition if any of you had bothered to check you would have found out that we had 27-28 nations on yellow and that RoseBlood had between 17 - 20 senate votes at the time. I doubt that you will believe me on this but I don't really care. What you think matters not at all to me.
[/quote]
Strange then that you bring that tangent up, if my opinion doesn't matter.

In any case, the picture is pretty clear that Vences didn't smudge out any exculpatory evidence, rather he marked out OOC personally identifying information...pretty standard fare, that. If you still don't understand why that was a CB, my PM inbox is far from full, but it seems quite off-topic here.

[James I]

Haha, the memories. I'm surprised that you've taken the time to write all this because I reckon I'm probably one of about five people that even has the vaguest interest in this or faintest idea what you're talking about.

I wanted to echo this in particular:

[quote name='Zoomzoomzoom' date='18 July 2010 - 12:00 AM' timestamp='1279407638' post='2376380']We were all dumb and didn't know what we were doing.[/quote]

Edited July 18, 2010 by James I

[maxnmike]

[quote name='bigwoody' date='17 July 2010 - 05:01 PM' timestamp='1279414852' post='2376495']
Strange then that you bring that tangent up, if my opinion doesn't matter.

In any case, the picture is pretty clear that Vences didn't smudge out any exculpatory evidence, rather he marked out OOC personally identifying information...pretty standard fare, that. If you still don't understand why that was a CB, my PM inbox is far from full, but it seems quite off-topic here.
[/quote]


Just because we said they could vote for brass doesn't mean they did and is something that can not be proven either way which is why your CB was crap then and still is.

Bye now.

[rabonnobar]

I didn't say or mean to imply that DefCon was infiltrated, Zoomie.

But yeah, heh@yellow.

[mythicknight]

[quote name='maxnmike' date='17 July 2010 - 09:50 PM' timestamp='1279417784' post='2376538']
Just because we said they could vote for brass doesn't mean they did and is something that can not be proven either way which is why your CB was crap then and still is.
[/quote]

You were openly supporting an alliance at war with TORN and others, and who had used senate sanctions in those wars. While its all ancient history at this point, and it was good enough for me, you pretty much put yourselves up on a platter for us with that scrolling announcement. And no, I don't care if anyone really did vote or not. I consider it a darwin moment.

Edited July 18, 2010 by mythicknight

[maxnmike]

[quote name='mythicknight' date='17 July 2010 - 08:24 PM' timestamp='1279427081' post='2376660']
You were openly supporting an alliance at war with TORN and others, and who had used senate sanctions in those wars. While its all ancient history at this point, and it was good enough for me, you pretty much put yourselves up on a platter for us with that scrolling announcement. And no, I don't care if anyone really did vote or not. I consider it a darwin moment.
[/quote]


Well let us see... you were at war with FAN for god only knows how long and yet you had nations on yellow where they could be sanctioned? How incredibly intelligent of you. Also, thank you for admitting that you don't care if you had a valid CB or not, but of course, we already knew that.

[mythicknight]

I can see you're trying hard for the sake of an old grudge, you'll just have to get through it. And both of your assumptions are false. I believe our CB is still as airtight as it was then. I've seen nothing new that would ever suggest otherwise. Move on.

[Kongo Jack IV]

I hear there's a New Auric Armada now. Ironically enough I protect them.

[Rush Sykes]

See, if you are going to tell a story, you should include all the details.

[quote]Au's move to yellow was done in and effort to bring about the resurection of the yellow sphere, for the longest time yellow had been a wasteland full of dead or dying alliances, exilled from the rest of the world they would be left there to wither away and die.

So Au stepped up to the plate and took the challenge of bringing back light to a sphere full of darkness, and the changes and impact we have had already have been notible , with many many more come the future of yellow looks bright for the first time in ages.[/quote]

So, was part of that resurrection of yellow, to threaten the current yellow alliances into following you and DoC? You know, nice little snippet quotes like "Things will change quickly on yellow in the next 2 weeks, and the ones who dont see things our way, will be gone."... Sir, this was not a revival attempt, it was a takeover attempt. You thought that because your move immediately made you the largest alliance on yellow, you could tell those of us(FINAL in particular) who had been there all alone, how to run our FA. Your attempt to "save" yellow, resulted in Golden Sabres being rolled, and 2 alliances leaving yellow. Cool revival job bro. Very successful. To be honest, you arrogant SOBs at AU got exactly what you deserved in the end. I took great joy in the FAN infiltration of your alliance, and watching the subsequent implosion. Couldnt have happened to a nicer bunch.

[Kevin McDonald]

I stopped reading when I realized you were making it all up.

[Jens of the desert]

Oh my, this brings back DefCon memories by the dozen

[Haflinger]

I really believe the OP when he says he was fifteen at the time.