Si Deus Nobiscum quis contra nos

There have been various attempts to create one single governing body for the roleplay community. Examples include the Treaty of Terra Nova, which was a treaty signed by various major roleplayers and their groups. The objective of the treaty was to secure a seperate roleplay for those serious groups who wished to roleplay civilly without the stress of warmongering and noobishness. Until September 2010 the main man who ran the community was known as Fruition. He was accused of lying and cheating roleplayers out of their groups, spamming and hacking. In a war which tore the community apart, with accusations and counter-accusations flying to and fro, Fruition, the so-called 'Supreme Leader' of roleplay, was defeated by a coalition of groups and clans which included many major roleplaying groups, and it was decided that democratic transition for roleplay was needed to unite the community so soon after his downfall, which led to the creation of the Council of Nations (-CoN-) of which I was an infamous part.

CoN achieved its central goal of centralising and uniting most of roleplay behind a common group with set goals and rules, yet it was flawed at best, dictatorial at worst. Due to much public outcry the rule which said that CoN members could not declare war against each other was repealed months later. The Council of Nations was dominated by struggles between the different factions of RP, most notably Prussia, Siam, Tchaikovsky's/Napoleon's OGN, and many more. In February a war between Prussia and OGN took on the form of a world war, with OGN crusading against the Council of Nations and its acclaimed tyranny. The war ended with OGN's defeat and occupation by CoN. I, as a young roleplayer, believed the riff-raff and propaganda that OGN ws the target of and came to view of OGN indeed as the symbol of tyranny and infamy in the roleplay community. I later found out through my own experiences that this was untrue.

CoN could be dictatorial when it felt the need to protect the interests of its major members, yet soft when it did not want to upset them. There were occasions, for example, in the close-run Prussian-Bavarian War, in which the major groups were forced to their knees, but in all, CoN was powerless to truly bring unity and democracy to the roleplay community. Its mock trials were also a source of debate and infamy. Smetana, one of its co-founders, was equally a source of infamy in the Council of Nations. He repeatedly suffered accusations of abusing his power and was attacked by many members.

CoN was also divided between liberal/progressive members who favoured Marc (leader of SPQR), the owner of CoN, and those conservative/Imperialist/right-wing who favoured as their figurehead his erstwhile (until recently) friend, Andrew. This split was the source of much friction within the Council of Nations and had repercussions for much of the roleplay community. It would not be long before the two plates would collide and cause an earthquake which would destabilise this already fragile community, still recovering from the legacy of Fruition. It is this friction we shall observe in the next chapter.