Arcanum Illyria Archive: Rhyagelle

The [Rhyagelle http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/#/Alliance/Alliance/453] alliance (RHY) is a predominantly Elgean-based alliance. While at present the alliance appears to be largely inactive, from 2012 to 2013 it was a top-10 alliance in Illyriad, debuting as high as 7th in terms of overall population. Rhyagelle principally occupied Meilla as its heartland, and later successfully colonized western areas of the Tor Carrock, as well central and Western Lan Larosh. The alliance was less successful in developing a foothold in Keppen, but sought to establish a discernible line of cities from the top of Meilla down through the south of Lan Larosh. The alliance also ran a training arm of the alliance, known as Rhylet (RHYL), which has since gone defunct.

The alliance was founded by Finrod, who had returned to the game (first as Marqus but later changed his name back to Finrod) after a 9-month hiatus from the game. The alliance featured several other key members in its leadership, including [Yearick http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/#/Player/Profile/17486], [Indeva State http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/#/Player/Profile/55016], [dave83 http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/#/Player/Profile/55699], LadyDa, and [Jejune http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/#/Player/Profile/263810].

During Rhyagelle’s most active period in 2012-13, the alliance participated in two key military campaigns: the annexation of the largely inactive Triality (TRI) alliance in Lan Larosh, and its pivotal role in the Coalition/Consone war in 2013.

Alliance Name #

The word “Rhyagelle” means “Those Who Come Home,” and comes from Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time book series. An early reference to the book and its signifcance to the alliance still appears on the alliance’s profile page:

Rhyagelle: From the Old Tongue; meaning “Those Who Come Home.”

Hailene: From the Old Tongue; meaning “Forerunners,” or “Those Who Come Before.”

Corenne: From the Old Tongue; meaning “The Return.”

The significance of the name is directly attributed to both Finrod and Yearick, who had returned to the game after a period of absence in the wake of previous wars that had left them disillusioned with the game.

Origins: Finrod, Yearick, and World’s End #

The creation of Rhyagelle was the direct result of circumstances surrounding its two central leaders, Finrod and Yearck.

Finrod joined Illyriad in 2010, shortly after the White/H? war — a time that predated the game’s current graphic format. At this time, finrod convinced Yearick to give the game a try, but in the early builds of the game, players couldn’t select city plots, and there was only one large map. Finrod was located near the center of the map — in what would become the Middle Kingdom — and Yearick ended up a few hundred tiles southeast of Finrod in what would become Perrigor. Yearick went on to establish [World’s End http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/#/Alliance/Alliance/165] (WE) on July 16, 2010, and Finrod joined a small alliance, The Knights Who Say Ni (Ni) (not to be confused with current alliance [Knights of Ni http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/#/Alliance/Alliance/953]), which was an early ally of Harmless?. Eventually, the game developers allowed players to relocate cities, which coincided with the introduction of specific regions on the new Elgean map, and Finrod used the opportunity to mov toward Yearick’s alliance and joined WE, as Ni had begun to diminish, and was later taken over and renamed Mal Motsha, moving to the mountainous region in the east of the same name, and creating created a firestorm in the early gaming community by claiming they owned the whole region, starting a campaign against others there — “join us, relocate, or die.” 

Finrod and Yearick eventually left WE and the game after three alliances conspired against WE over alleged grievances that Finrod to this day claims were false. The claims and ensuing conflict also forced Yearick’s second in command in, Cyan, from the game. Finrod attributed WE’s loss in this conflict to the fact that “Probably 75% of our alliance were new players and vulnerable,” and the belief that WE had been the victim of a mole: “We knew we had a mole, but never nailed down 100% who it was. There were 2-3 suspects.” 

Since Cyan was WE’s only real military threat, the three-pronged attack on the alliance could not be repelled, and Yearick left the game as he was specifically targeted, as did other players from WE. In the wake of Yearick’s departure, Finrod assumed leadership/diplomacy duties in WE, and eventually was able to sue for peace. Finrod’s successes in brining the conflict to a resolution was done without outside help from other alliances since, up until the time that he had joined WE, the alliance had no connections or allies in Elgea, and much of the server was focused on fighting Mal Motsha. However, Finrod was able to gain some sympathies, establish some new NAPs and Confed with other alliances, and end the war, which otherwise had been a slaughter for WE. Finrod, however, did not desire to remain in the leadership role at World’s End, and when no other alliance members came forward to take control, he eventually slipped away from the alliance and the game, citing the amount of work and time it took to save WE diplomatically was enormous. Yet, Finrod’s performance in bringing the war to a close established him as skilled diplomat in the game — a skill that he would later use in helping diffuse other conflicts in the game, such as his role in helping to negotiate an end to the TLR/AESIR conflict http://arcanum-illyria.com/wiki/TLR_vs._TRO/%C3%86sir . The experience also instilled in him a reluctance to go to war, noting, “This experience, and previously playing Tribal Wars when it was a new game, are the seeds that made me cautious and reluctant to go to war. It takes so much time in game to plan, and the commitment of alliance members to do the same to coordinate well. Without these, it’s easy to lose.”

The Return: The Establishment of Rhyagelle #

Finrod and Yearick both returned to the game 9 months later, and brought with them another friend, [Balkin http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/#/Player/Profile/18483], who had been in World’s End. They formed Rhyagelle on July 22, 2011, the alliance being a return for Finrod and Yearick. The alliance was first settled in a sparsely populated region in Meilla. There was an abandoned Elvish civilization that had been there before RHY, and the first alliance members settled near the ruins of their once expansive cities. There were a few hostile upstarts also in Meilla at the time, but working together Rhyagelle edged those rival players out of the region and brought stability to that area. 

Both Finrod and Yearick kept their identities secret for some time — Yearick returned under his old moniker but kept a low profile, but because WE was sitting some of Finrod’s old cities, his account was still active. Thus, Finrod returned as Marqus, and only let a few players in the game know his real identity. After about a year had passed, Finrod contacted the developers about his name situation, and was able to reclaim “Finrod.”

Finrod’s early mission as leader of Rhyagelle was to reestablish some old connections he had made while negotiating for WE during the war, in an effort to ensure that RHY would not be isolated in a potential crisis as WE had been. He also tried, much to the vexation of the alliance’s hawks, to avoid of real war. At the same time, RHY was not established as an alliance who would never consider military options: Finrod wanted the alliance to be militarily prepared for open conflict. In this way, Rhyagelle was an alliance composed of both hawks and doves, as well as a leadership that was dynamic enough to consider military responses to conflicts. 

Rhyagelle’s Growth & Leadership #

As Rhyagelle’s roster grew, so too did the alliance’s leadership structure. The alliance signed on dave83 and his alt Deimos, who was instrumental in helping to recruit for the alliance and who eventually formed the alliance’s more hawkish political faction. Guy Fawkes was also an early instrumental leaders in the alliance, helping to recruit members who eventually went on to be key contributors to the growth of the alliance. Jejune joined the alliance in August of 2013 and, after two months of serving as Rhyagelle’s Governor in Lan Larosh (known at that time as RHYLL), Jejune and other leaders were constituted into a Leadership Council.

The first iteration of the Leadership Council included Finrod, Yearick, Deimos, Balkin, Indeva State, LadyDa, and Jejune. Finrod assembled the Council as a means of dealing with issues and launching initiatives through a heirarchy, which proved to be effective, since the seven original members spanned a wide range of territory in Elgea and were able to engage in regional projects, such as tournaments and RHY’s eventual annexation of the Triality (TRI) alliance’s territory in Lan Larosh (see below). In creating the Leadership Council, Finrod also unwittingly forged two ideological factions within the alliance’s leadership — a more hawkish faction composed of Deimos, Jejune, Balkin, and to some extent Yearick, and as more dovish faction in Finrod, LadyDa, and Indeva State. 

A later iteration of the Leadership Council included additional, new members (**ADDITIONAL MEMBERS NEED TO BE ADDED HERE**)

Decisions on the use of military action, as well as other political issues, were hotly debated in the Leadership Council Forum, and those debates, while giving Finrod a broad spectrum of courses of action to choose from in dealing with conflicts, also caused rifts between the two factions and opposing players — rifts that would eventually lead to the alliance’s desolation.

Annexation of Triality in Lan Larosh #

Jejune was appointed Rhyagelle’s governor in Lan Larosh in the early winter of 2012. At that time, there were less than 5 RHY players in Lan Larosh — the alliance’s heartland was in Meilla. Jejune positioned his capital in the dead center of Lan Larosh, and directly to the east was a densely-populated, well established alliance called Triality (TRI). 

The TRI alliance came to Illyriad en masse from EverQuest, during the “big Sony hack,” as explained in an old forum post. While they were not officially allied with H?, they had very close ties.

As the new governor of RHY’s upstart presence in Lan Larosh, Jejune made it a project to familiarize himself with all of the alliances present in Lan Larosh, and TRI was geographically the most significant. He tried to reach out to their leadership multiple times, but the messages were ignored. In fact, the IGM’s were never even opened. However, over time, Jejune also began to notice that their leadership’s populations were not growing. At all.

A Wider View

The lack of activity from the leadership led Jejune to do an audit of other towns in their alliance. Following a couple dozen towns, he soon noticed that none of cities were growing either. The only TRI player who was progressing in population was Joscelin/[Acanof http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/#/Player/Profile/65712] (who would later join RHY, and then H?).

Given the fact that Jejune knew TRI had come to the game as a group, he began to suspect that maybe they had left as a group as well, but no one really knew about it. They had dozens and dozens of huge cities, which would be ripe for capture, and their lands were well-placed and strategic. By this time, RHY had moved more players into the center of Lan Larosh, and the alliance’s capabilities there were growing. Here is an old map that shows RHY in green and TRI in blue:

File:TrialityMap.png

Jejune posed to Finrod a clandestine operation to completely scout the entire TRI alliance. It started to occur to Jejune that RHY could completely scout the alliance, understand its defenses, and launch a coordinated invasion to siege literally every city all at once. It was a hugely risky endeavor, given how ultra-sensitive the Illyriad community was at that time, not to mention TRI’s connection with H?, which at the time RHY had no contact with diplomatically. However, if RHY had gone to GC and forums to ask permission or gauge the opinion of the community, it would have tipped other rival alliances off of the opportunity. Yet, if RHY was successful in the operation, the alliance could completely redraw the middle of the Lan Larosh map in a fortnight.

Scouting & Planning

In what some would consider surprising, Finrod gave his blessing for Jejune to commence in scouting, and the operation remained unknown to the vast majority of the alliance. Jejune scouted all 52 of the TRI cities, not including Jos/Acanof’s. You can see the old scouting reports [here http://docs.google.com/a/rcnmarketing.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApypNnv6g878dG42NzZGOTNmRUQ3dmkwVW1MRC16Vnc&usp=drive_web#gid=4].

Armed with this data, as well as proof positive that no on except for Jos/Acanof was active in the alliance, Finrod was convinced that it was an operation the alliance could move forward on. Finrod reached out to Joscelin and asked him if TRI was active. Jos confirmed that they were not — he had tried to get a hold of people in the alliance, but to no avail. Finrod confided in Jos our plans and invited him to join RHY. Jos accepted, and his acceptance proved to be critical in the success of the operation.

From this point, RHY announced the operation to the alliance and began to coordinate massive deployments of timed sieges on every city in TRI that was left.

Touch & Go

No matter how timed the operation was, Rhyagelle realized that such is Illy that that they were never going to be able to overtake TRI without having to confront the community. As the sieges started to be announced in rapid succession on GC, there were a lot of questions in GC, such as whether or not RHY and TRI were at war.

As the alliance leadership anticipated, no alliance was more alarmed than H?, who had helped TRI gets its foothold in the game. Sources noted that H? were fully ready to break up our sieges. In a later recounting of the incident, H?’s Anjire noted in a forum post on the Illyriad Forum:

‘Why this caused us (H?) some concern:

1) The profile of the RHY alliance stated that they were returning players with the specific intention of being militaristic.  2) H? members, myself included, had worked very closely with Triality helping them set up in some prime locations in LL a number of the locations extremely close to a few of our members.  3) Dhenna, the leader of Triality did not give any indication to any of her close Illyriad friends not just H? friends that anything was amiss or that they were leaving Illyriad.

How H? handled the issue:

1) H? members that had a direct involvement in the issue (close city and/or ties) were asked to post in detail on our forums but to hold off on taking any action.  2) Leadership of both alliances were contacted. This did take a few days during which we kept on top of the issue and kept everyone appraised of the situation. 3) In contacting the leadership, the identity of the returning players – specifically the leader Finrod of Rhygelle – was disclosed. I happened to have a very good prior history with the player that lead to a rapid de-escalation of the event and all the IGM’s we shared with each other were still in my inbox. (I made a habit of none deletion of IGM’s up till the last war) 4) Direct contact with Dhenna was made and confirmed their inactive state.

resulting in this message to Rhygelle and our members:

Greetings,

I have been in contact with Dhenna. It took a lot of work but I managed to track her down. Apparently, with the release of the latest EQ content expansion she has been too busy to deal with Illyriad. Likewise most of their membership. Since you have done your due diligence regarding tracking, I have advised our members seeking cities to contact and coordinate with you and your alliance to prevent conflicts. If you have an problems with regards to dual claims please let me know.

I was good friends with most of Triality and I hope you the best with your acquisitions. It was mentioned that anatheus was still active? Perhaps this player can find a home amongst your alliance because I am afraid there is about to be a grab fest for any and all Triality players towns.

~Anjire

Fortunately for Rhyagelle, H? reached out to Joscelin first. Joscelin was able to explain to H? leadership directly that TRI was indeed inactive, and what RHY’s gambit was. H? also managed to get in touch with Dhenna from TRI, who also confirmed they TRI was no longer playing the game.

A Realignment

It took about a week for the majority of sieges to complete, but it was about 3 weeks in total before the operation was over. By and large, it was a complete success: RHY captured or razed virtually every TRI city. There was one TRI player who came back and left the alliance in order to have his cities spared. Another player, Bobo the Clown also signed on and joined us, but never really picked back up playing. Jos went on to be a major player in helping to complete multiple sieges.

In the end, the operation redrew the central Lan Larosh map. This is more or less how it looked just after:

File:RHYMapinLL.png

From that time, Rhyagelle continued to refer to the region that as the “TRI province,” and the captured TRI towns retained their original names.

Departure of Finrod, Yearick #

Prior to Rhyagelle’s escalation of hostilities and eventual war with ABSA and Consone in October of 2012, both Finrod and Yearick abruptly left the alliance and the game. Their departure was over a dispute with game moderators, who deleted both Finrod and Yearick’s alt accounts, claiming that there had been cheating going on, with both players running multiple, non-sat accounts. This action by the GMs came about from a conflict that RHY was involved in with a member of Insanity Inc. (II) who was exposed as controlling a dozen or so non-sat accounts. The investigation ostensibly led the GMs to audit Finrod and Yearick as well.

To this day, Finrod claims that the GMs deleted he and Yearick’s accounts in error — that he, Yearick, and Balkin were all friends in Real Life (RL), and that any use of multiple IP addresses was simply the result of using each other’s computers from time to time. However, considering the sizeable loss of resources due to the alt account deactivations — both were sizable accounts in their own rights — Rhyagelle lost its top-tier leadership in rapid action.

Finrod left the leadership role of Rhyagelle to Indeva State, who at the time was the most active, tenured ranking member of the alliance’s leadership council. He assumed control of RHY, and his alt, Sn0w, was the leader of RHYL. The choice to give Indeva top executive control of the alliance would prove to be a pivotal decision in Rhyagelle’s role in the Coalition/Consone war, as well as its eventual schism. 

At this time, other key leadership changes were made: Deimos was installed as the Commander-in-Chief of the alliance’s military operations — a role that would eventually lead him to plan and execute a successful military campaign against ABSA — and Jejune was promoted to head of Diplomacy. Other leadership council members were reassigned to take over regional command of Rhyagelle in territories where they were strongest, such as LadyDa in the upper Meilla/Fremorn region, Joscelin in Lan Larosh, etc.

Conflict With ABSA & SkB, Prelude To War #

In early October of 2012, a simple player-versus-player (pvp) conflict between dave83 and a member of Skeleton Boar (SkB) would come to lead to one of the largest, costly, and protracted server wars in the game’s history. The original pvp dispute took place between Deimos/dave83 and Jefke http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/#/Player/Profile/133885 (SkB) over two rare resource squares — a conflict that began in mid-September of that year in the Tor Carrock. After both players had attacked one another and lost military resources, Deimos and Jefke communicated on situation, and were ostensibly heading towards an agreement on both plots — one of which was a deepsilver mine, and the other a trove mine, which has come to characterize the larger war that eventually ensued, referring to it as “The Trove War” or “The Great Trove War.”

The following IGM was sent by Deimos to Jefke:

From: Deimos [RHY] Subject: FW: RE: FW: RE: FW: Scout Mission to Square [-403|-184] in Tor Carrock Completely Successful! Received: 18 Sep 2012 22:45 Original Message:

Hello Jefke

I apologize for the delay, as i have been waiting for the council to reach a consensus. im sure you will know, that doesnt always happen overnight. i have been speaking in particular with one of our top leaders about this issue, i myself and Sn0w believe that because i attacked your forces in the taking of this resource, then my claim is believed to be an invalid one. we are both in agreement that the deepsilver deposit close to nardor should be returned to you.

this decision has now been made official and i will begin the process of withdrawal immediately. this resource is now yours.

the other mine in dispute, the trove mine. has been deemed to be a valid claim. the reasons for this are. . . that this resource was unclaimed at the time of capture and no counterclaims or disputes were made to the council when this resource was first taken. also, up to this point there have been many occupations by both RHY and SkB forces that have been in close proximity to our respective settlements. (with exception to extreme proximity, for example. . the flektrine incident) these have generally been ignored by both parties up to now and have been deemed to be necessary in order to maintain a status quo regarding the fair capture of neutral resources by both our alliances.

SkB players have been free up to this point to capture any vacant resource in RHY territory. if i were to give up all of my claims within SkB territory for the reasons you stated. (proximity) then this would also have to apply to all of your members claims that are within RHY territory. do you feel that this is a fair deduction? and is this something you would desire for your members?

i hope you can accept this outcome, along with my apology along with the reparations i made for the accidental combat that occured earlier. if not, then you are free to make an appeal. this can be made to our lead diplomat.. jejune.

All the best Deimos (RHY-high council)

While the issue of the Trove mine still remained an open one between Deimos, Jefke, and their respective alliances, the otherwise limited conflict took an unexpected turn that escalated it from a pvp dispute to a war declaration. During this interim, Messer of the alliance Absaroke — at that time a member of the Consone federation — launched an attack on Deimos’ position on the trove mine. When confronted by RHY on the matter, Messer admitted to the attack in an IGM:

Subject: FW: RE: army Received: 23 Sep 2012 10:25 Original Message:

I’m glad that we spoke, as long as things are temporary and fair, then that is fine.

Bottom line is someone asked for a little assistance, and I have attempted to provide it, impulsively, which is normal for me. The army is sent to occupy, so it isn’t an outright taking of it by force. I did give you a warning of what was going on so we would avoid losses.

Rhyagelle’s perspective on Messer’s decision to unilaterally attack Deimos on SkB’s behest was that it represented a serious escalation of the situation, in that a third alliance had interfered in a dispute that RHY was negotiating bi-laterially with SkB. RHY leadership regarded the attack by Messer as being much more serious than any of the issues between Deimos and Jefke. In response, Indeva issued a rebuke of the attack, and demanded reparations be paid to Deimos/dave83 for the loss of troops and resources. This was his IGM to Russian Blue (ABSA):

Hello Russian Blue,

I wish our first talk would be under better circumstances. I’m writing to you because of the deliberate attack on one of our resource camps by your member Messer (battle report below) on a presumed call from SkB, your confederates (quote from Messer: “someone asked for a little assistance, and I have attempted to provide it”).

In RHY in the past we have been willing to compromise on resource claims that were mostly made by SkB and Absa. We recalled our troops from many resource deposits in order to keep a friendly relationship with our neighbors. Even in cases where the occupation of a resource square was legitimate to RHY and Elgea policy (respect 8 squares around a city, respect sov claims, don’t be aggressive) we sometimes handed the resource over to the one asking for it without any discussion.

I’m afraid that this willingness to share the resource plots was now drastically altered by this incident. Whenever there was an incident before yesterday we more or less automatically assumed it to be an accident. With our trust having been abused this will be different now.

I don’t want to accuse Absa of the incident I write you because, but I only blame Messer. He is to be punished and I demand that 30M gold is paid to dave83 by September 30 as reparations for his losses. I don’t seek to siege him to the ground – this measure seems silly to me due to the size of the incident – but he should be warned: if he ever deliberately attacks a RHY camp again I can’t promise to be able to hold my men back.

I’m awaiting your response and thank you for your time.

Best, Indeva – Leader of RHY

Indeva’s attempt to frame the issue as being limited only to Messer was undermined when another ABSA member, Hugie, mounted another attack on Deimos’ forces on the square. In Indeva’s second IGM to Russian Blue, he still sought to characterize the attack from ABSA as limited to just two of its members:

Hello Russian Blue,

I don’t know if you already received it from within Absa or not, but there has been another deliberate attack. This time from Hugie.

In my opinion you can make a mistake once, but to do it twice is plain stupid. Furthermore, this attack was performed after I started diplomatic talks with you and therefore weighs much more.

Some in my alliance see in this incident an alliance-coordinated attack. In respect to Absa, I don’t. But if there are other members appearing on the battle field we will react accordingly.

You sure understand that the payment just went up to 70M gold to be paid by September 30. Alternatively you can expel Messer and Hugie and we will handle the situation ourselves. As I believe that Absa is an honorable alliance, I’m sure you understand the situation and that you won’t interfere if you chose the latter option.

The times are unfortunate indeed to learn to know you. Thanks again for your time.

Best, Indeva

An official response to Indeva’s IGMs came from ranking ABSA member Neytiri, who did not address the issue of restitution, but rather asked Indeva and RHY for a reprieve in handling the conflict, since it was at this time taking place at the same time as the Tournament. Her response is below:

Good den to the Lord Indeva State,

I write to thee with humble biddings amidst this time of foreboding unrest. I know that your ill intent toward our kind alliance is fraught with anger and an attitude – nay, an altitude of entitlement that we ne’er could reach with the tallest of ladders in all Illyriad. Tho while we are well apprised of your feelings in this matter — however unjust methinks they be – our alliance bids you pause for the duration of the upcoming tournament.

We may commence with your hostilities — be they as unfounded as a tent — after the tournament concludes if you so wish to continue. We would rather prove our own altitude on Illyriad’s final tournament roster. . . and judge that you would, too. . . though, I caution, you will lose that contest, too.

So, unless you are too afraid (or too dim witted) to match your alliance against ours in a legitimate Illyriad tournament, we propose a respite in thy plans for war.

What say you, Indeva State? You doubt me? The Noble Sir Finrod can vouch for my stout heart!

I will count your actions against our colleagues Messer and Hugie as an answer, though I beg thee to be brave and prove wrong the unbridled rumors of your cowardice!

In patience, The Lady Neytiri

In light of ABSA’s two attacks against RHY forces, Indeva and doveish faction of the alliance’s leadership council were no longer in a position to argue for a peaceful resolution. By this point, RHY leadership was no longer even contemplating a response to Jefke and SkB — the conflict had modulated to a much more serious one between RHY and ABSA. Neytiri’s Further missives to Indeva only added fuel to the hawks in RHY leadership:

I think I hear a clucking sound from somewhere in Keppen. . . Is that one of your members laying all those eggs?

There’s this strange odour wafting over the plains of Keppen, and I couldn’t put my finger on until today. . . It’s the smell of chicken frying! Is that why you haven’t participated in the tournament???

Dearest Indeva, I thought perhaps you would like a little change of scenery, and I found this picture that you could substitute for what’s on your alliance page: http://blog.hirevisiongroup.com/Portals/165527/images/chick.jpg Best wishes, Neytiri

The September 30 deadline came and went with no action from ABSA. In light of ABSA’s position, the RHY leadership council voted unanimously to declare war on ABSA. This was the official declaration of war made by Rhyagelle to ABSA, posted in the Illyriad Forum http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/rhyagelle-responds-to-absaroke-aggression_topic4306_page1.html

OCTOBER 10, 2012 — Felagund — Today, the Rhyagelle Alliance (RHY) took decisive military action to respond to a series of unprovoked aggressive attacks by Absaroke (ABSA) in late September. RHY’s decision was carefully considered only after reasonable terms offered by our diplomatic contingent were patently ignored. The following explanation seeks to present RHY’s casus belli for our response, and clarify our position on the matter.

RHY would like to make clear at the outset of this explanation that our military response is limited only to ABSA. Although ABSA’s aggressive acts were initially precipitated by a minor territorial dispute with the Skeleton Boar (SkB) alliance, that dispute has had no direct influence on our decision to respond militarily to ABSA — we are only presenting it here to give context to the entire situation.

In short, this situation is not about a mining issue with SkB, we have had no military exchanges with SkB in the wake of the events that precipitated our response thus far, we are not planning on pursuing military action against SkB over the mining claim in the future, and we are not responding militarily to SkB at this time.

This conflict is limited to ABSA.

The RHY/ABSA conflict began with a dispute between our alliance and SkB over a rare minerals mine in the Keppen region. RHY has used occupying troops to secure rare resource plots throughout our territories, and we have similarly respected players who have done the same in securing rare resources of their own. In this case, an RHY player successfully secured two rare mineral mines that Jefke (SkB) took exception to. After deliberations, our player agreed to a compromise and agreed to concede one of the two mines to Jefke in order to bring the matter to an agreeable solution. Jefke appeared to be satisfied with the compromise, and our player made it very clear that his occupation at the remaining mine would be temporary.

To this point, no fighting had commenced between RHY and SkB members.

It was at the end of this issue with SkB that Messer (Absa) attacked our player’s position with troops ostensibly at the behest of SkB players. SkB members had requisitioned ABSA confederated to eliminate our player’s forces deliberately. It is clear to RHY that SkB leadership was complicit in the knowledge of this attack, which was tacitly acknowledged by Messer himself in this IGM:

Indeva State (RHY) responded immediately to this act.

In the course of this exchange, our player re-took his position on the rare resource mine that Messer attacked. Days later, our players’ forces were wiped out again — this time by a different ABSA player, Hugie. In this attack, thousands of RHY troops were lost.

Once again, Indeva sought to reach a diplomatic conclusion to the escalating situation:

September 30th came and went, and RHY received no restitution from ABSA, nor did their diplomatic corps make any attempt to reach a compromise. It was only after the 30th that Indeva began to receive the following IGM from Neytiri.

RHY’s decision to enter conflict with ABSA came before the announcement of the tournament, and in spite of the tournament’s launch, RHY reserved the right to commence its response at a time and date of its own choosing, irregardless of ABSA’s requests or the tournament schedule.

Since this first IGM, Indeva has received repeated taunts from Neytiri as well, none of which he has responded to.

RHY feels that there is casus belli for its response to ABSA. Two separate ABSA members attacked and destroyed thousands of RHY troops for no apparent reason, and ABSA leadership was unwilling to resolve the matter diplomatically. Rhyagelle will not suffer such a wanton disregard for decorum in Elgean politics and will pursue new strategic objectives against ABSA in light or their decision to aggressively attack our players and ignore the diplomatic process.

Finally, RHY is aware of ABSA’s membership in the Consone syndicate. We strongly caution against any intervention of confederated alliances on ABSA’s behalf, including but not limited to Consone members and SkB. RHY enters into this conflict with the expectation that the combatants will remain limited to our alliance and ABSA. However, RHY is also prepared to respond decisively against any alliance who attempts to bolster ABSA’s forces, directly or indirectly.

We strongly encourage Consone to denounce ABSA’s behavior and expel it from their coalition.

Copies of combat reports and IGMs Diplomatic enquiries may be made directly to Jejune or Indeva State.

N.B. Several of our confederations and NAPs have been provisionally cancelled while hostilities commence. Leaders can feel free to contact us on this issue as well.

In a subsequent reply on the forums to this war declaration, Ander of ABSA confirmed that indeed his alliance had attacked RHY’s position in support of SkB:

What they did not mention is Addendum 4 and 5 were our only response after 7 armies of one of our player was attacked and after several diplo missions against our cities.

Also in the whole post the square where the battle happened is not mentioned. http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/#/World/Map/-403/-184/10

The square is close (2 squares) to SkB cities with no RHY cities near. RHY has a 24 square policy around their own cities, as you can see in their public forum – http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/#/Alliance/Forums/453/-2/4272

Absa involvement in this was Messer and Hugie attacked the camp 5 and 7 days after promised withdrawal of RHY troops. Their actions were out of personal friendship with involved SkB members and we fully back their actions.

I was hoping that all this stuff would not come to forums and we didn’t have to spend time on the forums, on the top of the tournament and a war.

Ander’s response in the forums, particularly where he notes, “Also in the whole post the square where the battle happened is not mentioned,” and his subsequent statement arguing SkB’s position in the Trove mine incident, marks the beginning of a counter-interpretation of the war, claiming that it was primarily over the control of a Trove mine. While Rhyagelle declared war on ABSA, not SkB, over their interferance in a bi-lateral conflict, ABSA would go on to effectively control the narrative and rally support within the ranks of Consone, convincing much of the Illy community that RHY’s war declaration was overblown, since it was based only on troves.

Rhyagelle & The Coalition #

During this time, Jejune had maintained communication with some members of H? leadership, which was a continuation of the culmination of the TRI operation. RHY and H? at that time entered into a NAP agreement and were building a growing diplomatic relationship. The spark of conflict with ABSA, a member of Consone, introduced the prospect of adding RHY to a coalition of the willing who sought to challenge Consone’s gambit as an influencer in Elgea. Eventually dubbed The Coalition, Rhyagelle was invited to join, with the promise that if Consone forces would interfere with the war, The Coalition would step in. At this time, the forming coalition included H?, dlord, NC, and DARK.

VIC’s leader at the time, Jasche, eventually made the decision to strike at RHY sieges, which to that point had not been broken and were nearing completion. This critical move on Jasche’s part proved to be pivotal in sparking the Consone/Coalition war, since Jasche was the titular public leader of Consone and VIC garnered much of the leadership of the Federation at the time.

H?’s KillerPoodle made a curt announcement that brought them into the conflict:

KillerPoodle

Posted: 11 Oct 2012 at 02:40

It seems as though we have a soupy escalation. A short time ago armies from VIC attacked and destroyed one of RHY’s siege camps.

As a close ally (a private confederate if you will) of RHY, Harmless will be taking appropriate steps to support our friends against the ‘Broth Brothers’ confederation.

KP

“Soup” was the Coalition’s operational nickname for Consone.

Originally published on the Arcanum Illyria.