Contextual Background

Nox and ISIS: closely aligned

These past two weeks, the ongoing Nox-Eden war that has been going on since the fall of Titan has been drawing to a close. It's no secret that I've been heavily involved with Nox for a couple of months now. The ISIS, the small nation I lead just north of Mt. Augusta, has been very closely allied with Nox (and formerly Libertas) since the Riptide Incident that was the straw on the camel's back, breaking our already strained relationship with the World Police. After these events I've always aligned myself with Nox, going so far to inextricably bind ISIS' economy and military with them, as I believed they stood for ideals that I wanted to uphold in the face of what's commonly known as "Classic WP Sovereignty-violation". I was not alone, as Sintralin's adept subreddit maneuvering gained her- and Nox- popularity among most of Civcraft's non WP towns and populations. Nox stood for fairness and justice in the face of WP's classical "Ignored, deal with it, we don't care" approach. Furthermore, Nox came to Istanbul's aid, as well as Augusta's aid multiple times when we were under threat. Recognizing this, we returned the favours when we could, fighting side by side as brothers, facing a common enemy. Augusta, ISIS, Chanada and Nox (as well as many more) stood united.

End of the Eden-Nox War

In these recent two weeks things have been heating up on all fronts. Since the declaration of the Chanada-Mir war, and the subsequent proxy war between MA, Nox and Eden, the situation has been devolving into more and more violence. TB crew, Eden's last attempt at striking Nox via proxy, was extinguished not too long ago. This resulted in a drama bubble that burst when it was revealed both sides had used sensitive out-of-game information to access logs that showed Eden's involvement with TB crew. While this secured a victory for Nox, it also disgusted many non-aligned players, and the leaders of Nox, Sintralin and Poper_Pound, were banned for an indefinite amount of time.

Recent Developments

It is at this point that something changed within the Nox leadership. The infamy from the unpopular "semi-doxx" slightly isolated Nox, and the last remaining WP elements took this as a chance to strike one last time against them, attempting to rally the server by using the "Doxxers have no place on this server" argument. At 3:30 AM in the morning on Sunday morning, WP fighters launched an attack on Nox's Netherfactory, and eventually pearled a Nox citizen, Live4MC. They vaulted her in Carson. Nox responded swiftly and with full force. Calling in fighters (including myself), they ran to the carson Netherfactory and disabled it with DRO. This was an extremely controversial move, and while I personally understand how wartime could call for desperate measures, the calls of concern from the general population did indeed worry me. I was not present for the DROing of the nether

The next day, I joined up with Noxian forces again to help them out in their military movements to continue to secure the Carson netherfactory. It was at this point that I became aware of a sudden change in Noxian actions. As we arrived to the Carson netherfactory, where many naked people were milling about, the group seemed to have decided to pearl everyone present. I quickly blasted over mumble that that was extremely stupid, and pearling nakeds never works out. After some back-and-forth, we left, and a senior Nox commander entered the channel to tell us that next time, we should pearl the nakeds if they refused to leave the area. I chalked this up to excitement and nerves, although I expressed my disgust at pearling nakeds multiple times. It was at this point that I moved my combat alt away from the Nox vault and back to ISIS.

On Monday I went to work but kept up closely with the subreddit, and it was there that I saw something that shocked me. I saw a continuation of last night's PR blunders: more innocents pearled, more nakeds pearled, a complete disregard for PR hits and infamy, and public opinion turning massively against Nox for their actions as the "new World Police". Every hour brought a new thread of another naked player caught in the netherfactory and pearled, only to be vaulted and given little to no explanation. By the end of the day I became quite angry and voiced my discontent on the subreddit. I planned to get home and talk with some leading Nox members to try and understand what was going on as well as share my disappointment on the matter.

Events in the nether on Monday

Choice words with New Nox leaders

When I returned home I opened up the sub and was completely taken aback by what I saw. Nox had pearled ProgrammerDan. At this point, I was outraged. The top comment on the post claims thread said "...you don't pearl ProgrammerDan." This summed up my feelings exactly.

I opened up mumble and went to speak to Superbuilder who appeared to be representing Nox. I asked him abrasively why ProgrammerDan had been pearled. The discussion quickly became heated as he insisted ProgrammerDan had been pearled for breaking the rules. I later gathered he had been AFK breaking part of the DRO grief on the Carson netherfactory and therefore had been vaulted. SuperBuilder told me he had released Dan, but refused to give him back his 300d prot set "[...] as a punishment".

I saw the situation differently. I tried, in vain, to explain that this was the worst PR hit in a recent string of terrible PR hits. I tried to explain that not caring about PR and pearling naked people cleaning up grief was a WP characteristic, and something Nox stood against. Mostly, however, I was angry at the fact that Nox had attacked and pearled, without care, someone who represented Nox's biggest ally, Mt. Augusta. ProgrammerDan is everything Augusta, and he had been jumped and pearled while AFK by Nox themselves. I viewed this as unacceptable, a repeat of the Riptide incident except with the roles reversed this time.

Xavter takes a stand

At some point, others joined the channel including Hantzu, who backed up Superbuilder with such words as "We don't care about PR", "[...] who cares about PR hits. Fuck what people think", and "[...] deal with it. Suck it up". This flabbergasted me even more, and I even yelled out to him "That's WP talk! Stop! We fought against this for 7 months, don't you remember?!".

At this point, Xavter joined the conversation and began to back up my statements. I saw he felt the same way I did, betrayed and angry at the sudden Noxian shift. The memes were true, Nox was becoming the new WP. At some point, Xavter asked Hantzu directly: "What if I went over there, and I attempted to clear that grief?" He was met with something to the effect that he'd find himself at the bottom of a vault. Remaining silent for a moment, he then said: "Well, I'll tell you what, I'm going to go over to that grief, and I'm going to brake a block of DRO for ProgrammerDan. He didn't deserve to get pearled. This is in protest to what you people are doing. You were supposed to uphold the principle of justice, not toss it out the window".

While the argument continued, it dawned on me that what Xavter was doing- taking a stand, be it foolhardy or not- was what was morally correct. I messaged him, saying I would come with him. At this point, we all moved to a different mumble channel where Xavter and I started contacting various like-minded players, most of them builders and farmers, to come attend the protest and help break a block of DRO in memory of Dan. We quickly managed to get a small conglomeration of naked, barefoot players with diamond pickaxes, meeting up in the griefed Carson netherhub. I donned my combat loadout as I felt that I could not- and would not- allow these nakeds to be massacred. Evocat0r showed up, and together we were the only players protted out while 5 or 6 nakeds began breaking the tip of the DRO blanket.

The Protest

In all, 7 people showed up to the protest. The nakeds began chipping away at the corner of the blanket as evocat0r and I danced around the station, talking in mumble. As the channel swelled, Xavter and I explained once again our stance. We needed to take a stand against what we viewed as fundamentally incorrect. The "WP Treatment" Nox was giving the server disgusted us, and, at least in my case, I had spent the past 7 months fighting against it during the Eden-Nox war. Many expressed disdain at the inefficiency of the protest, but in the end most agreed that the most recent Noxian course of action was worrisome, and that nakeds and innocents should not be pearled. I gave a rousing speech where I brought up the fact that I still believed in Nox, but not the new Nox leadership. Taking a stand was what needed to be done, and many of these players knew they were going on a suicidal mission when they decided to stand up for what was right.

Nox shows up

About 15 minutes in, an special ops team of 3 Noxian Militia players, CrayFishAttorney, SuperBuilder and SexSleave showed up in the factory. They knocked off all the nakeds and issued a verbal warning to cease and desist. I approached them and started to speak in global chat, urging clemency. "Is this really worth it? Is it really worth it to throw away all your PR and all your alliances for one block of DRO?" This was met with more "[...] this is a Nox-controlled area, leave immediately".

At this point, the nakeds returned to the corner of the blanket and began chipping away once more. SexSleave, an unknown alt, began to negotiate with me. I told him that this needn't happen, and that it was a lose-lose situation. He expressed sympathy and said Evocat0r should back away. Right as as I was about to contact Evocat0r and ask him if he should back away into a tunnel, the Noxian militia potted up and jumped over to where he was standing.

The Fight

Over the mumble, I heard Evocat0r say that he was being attacked. Simultaneously, I heard from a couple of nakeds that they were being attacked and/or pearled. The massacre had begun. I swore under my breath and potted up. Knowing that we were heavily outnumbered, I began to evaluate my escape routes should I need to use them.

I heard a cry from someone in the mumble that they had been pearled by Superbuilder. I jumped down from the obsidian tower and began to attack him, trading blows until I caught him in a gank hole. I felt him close to death, but he managed to pot, and at that point Crayfish and SexSleave broke away from Evoact0r to focus me. I pearled away, health potted, and ran down into a tunnel, realizing that I would not be able to take all three of them. Mercifully, they broke off pursuit and returned upstairs where a few more nakeds were pearled, and Evocat0r was chased off. I returned to the station when Crayfish engaged me, and we scuffled for a bit before I ran down the tunnel again and he broke off again.

Aftermath

The battle was over. I looked at my extremely damaged prot and missing potions. Xavter, as well as many others, had been pearled and were being transported to the Noxian vault. I saw the nameplates of the three militiamen pass over my head on an ice road, and disappear into the distance. We had lost. More than that, I had lost. I had made a promise to those nakeds that I would protect them, and when the time came I had been powerless, my prot breaking too fast and my pots running out too quickly. I returned to Augusta as the mumble shitshow began, and with a heavy heart I walked north to ISIS. What had happened? How had this happened?

Summary and Thoughts

In closing, the next immediate course of action is not known to me. My first priority lies with the pearled nakeds who were massacred. I don't doubt some of them will get released, as last night's events must have been sobering even to the battle-hardened Nox leadership. On a larger scale, however, these next few days will tell if Nox has truly stooped to the level of the past WP, something which they tried so hard to fight, only to eventually become it.

My personal plea to the government of Nox, specifically Sintralin, is for clemency and a return to the PR-wary and likeable Nox of only a few weeks ago. Eden is dissolved. The war with WP has been won. Now is the time to allow the blanket of relative peace to cover the server as all straggling combatants are taken care of. Sintralin, take control of your nation, of your people. We allied with you since you represented the ideals which I wanted to fight for. Please, don't let yourselves become the representation of the opposing values.

TL;DR, Nox takes WP attitudes, protest against it held in nether, massacre as nakeds are pearled en masse. Despair from my side.