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I have been waiting to write this for a long time. For those of you who know me, I was once the Co Leader of the alliance know as Empire of the Romans. I have the honour of being Justinians first merger, although definately not the last. The Idea of Rome When first approached by Justinian asking about a merger, it started off extremely poorly. Despite my alliance being the larger of the two, Justinian approached it as us simply merging into his for the good all involved. When we balked at this idea, and proposed more equal terms the talks almost died right there. Many times, looking back, I wish it had. But instead, I got my best people together, and decided it was best to negotiate this out for the potential it had. Notably, Justinian brought nobody but himself to these talks. His people would do whatever he decided on was what he said. The talks were a clash of ideals, democracy and standards on one side, quick and flexible authoritarian on the other. In the end we tried our best to merge these conflicting ideals into one cohesive foundation for our new joint alliance, the Empire of the Romans. There were a few things left out, with the idea that we would get back to them later. Things left out, conflict resolution, warchest standards, fiscal policy and government expectations. These would be the seeds for the fall of Rome. The Rise of Rome The initial merger went as well as could be expected. My members joined the new alliance within a day, the alliance bank was transferred, people joined the new discord, things went swimingly. Justinian and I worked hard to set up a community, a government, and a path forward. We had elections, people were joining, our financial situation was stable. Justinian and I were a good team, in the beginning. We worked together, we figured out solutions to problem, we compromised. Justinian worked hard on finding mergers for the new alliance, although this was the first real indication that this alliance was not. what it first seemed. Despite being equals, at least on paper, I was not informed about mergers before they were just about to happen. While I was okay in principle with mergers, not being informed on them was a troubling situation. I chalked this up to growing pains, and let him know that I did want a bit more in terms of notice and updates regarding potential mergers. With this out of the way, we grew. Merger followed by merger. All really disorganized alliances, all broke. So while we grew in terms of numbers, our alliance bank did not. And despite communicating that I and all of gov needed more information about mergers, the information we got was usually last minute, hours if not minutes before the merger was to take place. This pattern would persist until the very end. The Cracks Begin to Form The first real drag it out conflict that Justinian and I had was over which sphere to choose. PRIU, having fought hard in the delta hedge war, had secured a protector in Children of the Light, and we had good working relations with them. Justinian was coming from Hollywood and TKR, and wanted to continue with them. For once, we could not agree. Which was fine, we had planned for this possibility. If we could not decide, Gov would. And gov voted for Cataclysm. This should have been the end of the matter. Instead Justinian engaged in a smear campaign, dragged CotL reputation through the mud, twisted arms, and forced people to change their vote. This went against everything that we had decided on, but instead of making it a bigger issue than it needed to be, I simply remembered that this was how it was going to be going forward. I didn't know it yet, but the good times were already over, it was going to be a battle of wills from this point forward. Meanwhile, the mergers continued. At this point, I started to sound the alarm. Not only was our bank shrinking in comparison to the amount of members we were absorbing, all of these nations had 0 warchests. Myself, knowing the importance warchests played in PRIU doing well in our war, wanted to stop. Consolidate. Train our members before getting new ones. Justinian wanted to seize the momentum, continue to grow. These lumps of coal could be turned into diamonds at a later date. Besides, TKR would keep us out of war. But to address my concerns, he would import a specialist government minister from outside the alliance. If I said our military situation was abysmal, he would grab a guy he said was an expert in military affairs. If I said our builds were junk, he would import a IA guy. Economics 10/10 taxes was hurting us, he would import a finance guy. These people would stay for as little as 3 weeks sometimes before going inactive or leaving for another alliance, all the while the issues they were here to address went unresolved. And the ones that did stay were the loyal yesmen to Justinian, that seemingly being their strongest attribute. More on this later. The absent leader To begin, I understand this is just a game. The pay is horrible, the hours can be long, and the credit if fleeting at best. That said, those who want to be leaders do need to put in the time. I made sure to always be around my discord, available to members and government alike should something arise. Maybe too much time, as my wife would tell me as I sorted government issues while out on date night. So I don't blame people for having a life outside the game, Justinian least of all. But there comes a point where I began to wonder, how could I help run the alliance when the guy Im supposed to be running it with is never there? Gov would spend hours discussing an issue, awaiting Justinians input, we wouldn't get a response for 20 hours. I would send paragraphs of text suggesting policy, wouldn't get a response for days. There were times I needed to join the VC after one of his shows to get a hold of him to let him know all of gov was waiting on him to make a decision. Again, everyone needs a life outside this game, but a leader of an alliance should be available more than 20 minutes a day. And its not like he would be at work, or with family. He would be playing EU4 while ignoring all our pings. And when he did grace us with his presence he was more likely to simply want to do something that popped into his head without collaboration instead of addressing what myself and gov had been discussing. So in late november, this finally came to a head. Not by me, but by Justinian saying he was over running the alliance. We should merge into TKR. Little did I know that talks were pretty much complete and the merger was my approval away from being completed. I for the life of me could not understand how someone who put in 20 minutes actually governing could be tired of it all, but I did manage to talk him down from it. But it has to be known, EotR was on borrowed time from mid to late November. It was no longer a matter of if EotR would merge into TKR, but a matter of when. The decline of Rome Arrgh did in Rome. Arrgh killed the dysfunctional alliance called EotR. Arrgh mass raided EotR for 2 days. Arrgh, in 2 days, drained alliance members of 50-60 percent of what was in the alliance bank in resources. It wasn't clear yet, but Arrgh had set EotR into its death spiral. Everything wrong with the alliance came back to bite it. Preparedness, nil. Warchests, for the vast majority, none. Build discipline, none.(20 percent of net losses were suffered by 3 individuals, all under 12c with average 2700 infra). I had never been so embarrassed in my time in this game. Milcom was none existent. People being blockaded for 1 turn talking about surrender. I was ashamed I had let things get to that point. All the mergers just made the alliance bloated. Not stronger, bloated, with soft nations with subpar militaries and no warchests. And all during this raid, Justinian was nowhere to be seen. Too busy getting high and drunk, we could deal with it. In 2 days, Arrgh laid bare every failing of the alliance. Low taxes meant a pitiful alliance bank. No warchest standards meant a lot of wars lost, and high infra builds destroyed. Poor gov standards meant little to no effective milcom. And the final nail in the coffin, conflict resolution would end my time as leader. Before the arrgh raid, I had let it be known that if standards were to be applied alliance wide, they needed to start in gov. So I let every gov member know, have a effective warchest or you cannot serve as gov. I gave 2 months for people to get up to speed. And they all did, to their credit. Until a week after the argh raid, when Klaus Noxix sold his entire warchest for a new city. I fired him. Justinian reinstated him. I fired him again. I sat him down and talked to him about the importance of warchests and made sure he understood before I let him back in gov. A compromise in my mind. Not good enough for Justinian. Klaus Noxix was one of those loyal yesmen Justinian wanted, so the standards didnt apply to him. He removed me that same day. Why? We had never come to an agreement on conflict resolution, so off I was. Everything I put into that alliance, for nothing. The final days of Rome I was kicked. Equal Co leaders my ass. But oddly, I wasn't upset. I thought I should have been. Knocked down to member,discord priveleges taken away. I should have been raging. I was anxious about starting from almost scratch.(Justinian, to his credit, gave PRIU its original bank back). I had go contact my members, get Clock to bring me back into the fold, organize a move from EotR. But I was not angry. Why? Why was I not angry? Because EotR was doomed. I knew it, and I believe Justinian knew it too. Not because I left, or because all but 1 PRIU member returned to the reformed alliance, the few of the alliance with proper standards and proper militaries. No. It was because as Arrgh had shown us internally, EotR was broken. Its fundamental structure was broken. And it would be up to Justinian alone now to fix it. All those rapid fire mergers with a bank that was actually slightly smaller than it was at the original merger but with 3 times the members left the alliance 1 major conflict away from toppling over. And as that conflict began, I watched EotR be the only member of Hollywood to go negative net, and I knew it was over. And so it is, merged into TKR as it would have been in november if not for my intervention. While I can watch with amusement from afar, this does not fill me with any great joy. A lot of people put a lot of work into that alliance, despite its failings. To watch it crumble 5 weeks after I left is nothing but a disservice to those who did put in that hard work, those long hours. As for why now, why share this all now? Well, with the alliance all but dead, nothing I say will effect it further. I had wanted to share this before, and many of the news organizations in game wanted to hear it. But due to the work those still there had put in, I bit my tongue, and went on with my life. So this is for those who wanted to know.

During GW22 we had our problems. But we eventually started to gain ground and put ourselves into positive net. After a lot of arguing(I was absent at the time of this) a couple gov members had left. Before that I thought we were doing really well, but I must have been wrong. We were growing, we had plans of growing our current members, but we never had chances to do that bc of all of the mergers we had. We always had to accommodate the new members, out them where they needed to be, and put the gov members, who were promised gov, in gov. When Ethereal light merged into EOTR, all of my members loved Rome, some members, who weren't gov before, we're getting gov opportunities, me getting gas low gov(low gov is above staff), and was promised to become the fa head when Klaus was named the 2ic, which was going to happen in days to weeks to come. When I heard that we had merged, I was pissed. I had just settled down(I was/am still away, just checking discord here and there) into my gov position and was really happy I was going to be the fa head. Then I wasn't. We had merged, and my dreams crushed. Now I am forced to either join TKR, join the "new Rome" or make my own alliance. All thanks to Justinian "awesome" idea to merge EOTR int tkr. We spent so time into making Rome into what it was, and it just got taken from us like no one cared we tried. It seems as if justinian just didn't have the time, or patience, to run Rome anymore. He could have made someone else the leader, and went off on his way. Our members might have understood. But no, he did what the majority of our members wouldn't have wanted and merged Rome.

As someone who went through a similar situation quite a few years ago when I was just starting out in this game, the less involved members who are quiet and obedient tend to follow the orders from the government, sometimes even when they come out of nowhere such as a merger. I have a sneaking suspicion that they werent presented the merge as a mere option but more so an order and many probably just went with the flow. I'm sure they will be fine in TKR - it is going to be much more stable from the sounds of their alliance from this post. Whether people would have actually opted for the merge if given the choice, that is a different story.

How do you fire an equal position co-emperor?

Very well said, Palsada. I wish I had gotten to know you more before everything. Your vision for what Rome should be is what we are working together to build over in the Empire of Rome. Rome still lives. Rome Eternal.

Not to be rude, but Edit because all I'm reading is "Rome, Rome, Rome": Ave Legio.

Literally 476

--- --- People are yelling! The Gavel has been swung! The Bailiff takes out his service weapon! It's pandemonium, it's chaos! It's... Thalmoria v. Borg Scheduled for tonight at 10 PM EST, come see if a cyborg can plead the fifth, or if a bot can be compelled to testify against its creator (probably not). Court Lineup: Defendant: Borg Judge - Thalmor Bailiff - Zig Lead Prosecutor: Prefontaine Assistant Prosecutor: Jadenstar Lead Defense: Decagon Assistant Defense: Vice Assistant Defense: Luna Thalmor Radio will also be at 9 PM EST as usual. I plan on going for 45 minutes, and then will slowly ease into trial proceedings. Topics tonight include the war ending, my takes on some minor happenings this week, and a brief special guest appearance! I wonder who it is! Ooooh, mystery! Server invite: https://discord.gg/j8FBFJaWg9 Recording archive: Thalmor Radio - YouTube

I’ll personally look back at rome with respect. For all the alliance has done for me and the community i was a part of Makes me sad to see it go but nothing lasts forever i guess

Those are rookie numbers. Gotta boost those puppies up

Not the worst critique I’ve ever read. I personally disagree with your assessment of the absentee leader and will present you with my perspective: Constant and incessant arguing in gov that always needed my intervention to resolve. 3-5 times a day I had to step in only to remind people to be respectful. Let alone be able to get any work done. To the point where I could no longer call this a game I played for fun but rather a chore. The membership of Rome, for what it was, were great people and solid group. I literally gave everything I had to them. Money, time, energy. Everything I did was for the benefit of Rome including the merge when it was clear the alliance was sustainable. I had a great time and made good memories despite how it turned out. I hope everyone looks back on it fondly to some extent.

This speaks for all true Romans

Should the meta be ignored? great, what does that mean? Not liking something doesn't accomplish anything. You dont like it? come up with a plan to change it, and get people on board. Constantly complaining about the meta doesn't get you anything besides people eventually tuning you out. You must be happy that we tossed a bunch of terms on tS just a few days ago!

The Problem with Ronny's META™ By @J Kell Sponsored by @zevfer Da META™ defined: Metapolitics (sometimes written meta-politics) is metalinguistic talk about politics; a political dialogue about politics itself. In this mode, metapolitics takes on various forms of inquiry, appropriating to itself another way toward the discourse of politics and the political. It assumes a self-conscious role of mediating the analytic, synthetic, and normative language of political inquiry and politics itself. (source) AKA The self-imposed rules the players play by when engaging in in-game politics. @Sweeeeet Ronny D's comment reflects the worst attitude you can have in a gaming community; a repulsion to change. Ronny wants us to keep the “Da META™” because he, along with a few dozen other players, has spent over seven years creating it. It’s a handcrafted set of rules that these players hold close to their hearts. Why shouldn’t they? These players have put hundreds and thousands of hours molding “Da RULES™” into their liking. I have been asked by many to explain why should we challenge/change these rules? They are well established and the players of Orbis have been taught they are the moral law while those that go against it are disruptive to the game. We have been blessed here on Orbis with the arrival of thousands of new players. Newer players, having been taught “Da META™," and after two years of exploring, are realizing just how stagnate the politics in Orbis are because of “Da META™.” These views are reflective in various polls and the increase in raiding and pirates in Orbis. New players are disengaging with the politics of Orbis because “Da META™” began being built by some 50 players when the game had less than five thousand regular users. We now have nearly three times that number of active players. The view Ronny espouses expressly ignores the new players’ desire to change the way the game is played because “they were here first.” The new established players should be allowed to have a voice, and they have numbers that the old guard does not have. The old guard needs to reckon with the fact that they are leading spheres filled with members who do not agree with them. Let’s hope moving forward we can have a debate on the merits and not the “I was here first” debate. I am working on other responses to Keezgo and the whole “bi-polar era was terrible” argument. Can I please reiterate something that @Kevanovia has said for me multiple times, I am not saying the before NPO times were amazing and perfect, I’m giving my vision for the game that I think will help it grow. I do think that it was better before NPO, but do not conflate that by stating I want things to “revert” back. I Await Your Discord...

Order of the White Rose Announcement In the spirit of bringing more posts and “culture” back to the OWF (because that’s apparently what the WoTs say we all want) OWR would like to present its new government lineup. Prime - Lord Sval, of Yukikuni Protectorate Legate of Internal Affairs - King Gonzalo, of Great Novotnia Legate of Economics - König Karl XVIII, of Neuheim Legate of Defence - The Forger Ekrdin, of Nain-Possible Vicarius of Internal Affairs - Chairman Meow Kabu, of The Cat Couch Republic of Korea Vicarius of Economics - Ruler Greypher, of Gensokyo Vicarius of Defence - President Tomoya, of Kaide Master of the Quill - King Bendigeidfran, of The Petty Kingdom of New Gwynedd NB: Foreign Affairs was disbanded at the formal request of the Foreign Affairs staff Look at you, reading the small print. Nice job. No, they still won't let me retire. Believe me, I've tried… While I have your attention, how about a joke? Did you hear the one about the magic tractor? It went down the lane and turned into a field. No? Fine, I'll disband.

Trade offers should be deleted if the nation who posted the offer does not have the funds to back up said offer. As sometimes you're just trading and then you try to sell something to someone but it tells you the nation doesn't have enough cash to complete the offer. I wouldn't call it game breaking, but it is an annoyance. More of a QoL issue than anything. Fix: Check a nations cash/rss on hand against the market offers posted by said nation, if they don't back each other up then cancel the nations trades.

W/ all things considered here & in the news servers, would you have ever considered that due to all the new ppl coming in whom are practically receiving a low amount of consolidation when instated into the aa, followed by the lack of raising standards via training over time as more of a contravention to the aa itself? Yes you may have came in to settle although maybe if ppl were actually held accountable furthermore drilled w/ t EotR's core aspects of each dept, they would have happen less as well those whom are knowledged enough can apply it towards willing others. You among some close others leaving ppl amidst while intervening when "necessary" only sound like ya wanted to be seen as a savior when you stepped in. But w/ conflict continuing, ppl grew weary of that but gained a drive to do better. Althou, what is their to do when the leader is seemingly purposely disarraying ppl so they have to get your so called "good willed" contentions. If I learned anything from my aa hoping, ppl want a leader whom actually leads collectively w/ calm consideration rather bosses them around to their brooding w/ minimal questions asked. Arguments are goin to happen in this game nothing the less but you taking action to avoid it. Specially when the aa you seem to enjoy fell due to a lack of actually settling shit, more of offsetting it (which makes stuff pile up worse if it wasn't obvious enough) to your will. I've seen this multiple time in my own viewing as all those I listen too. Even been in similar spot to Pallies in a few of my gov experiences. Im no golden boy cuz I certainly have my wrong doings but ones gotta open their eyes outside of themselves or one only becomes self-absorbed n greedy whom can cover such sins w/ lighter tones. Gather ideas around to middle ground into a stronger one over time, not just mainly what you saw was best to your values moving forward. Act like a Julius Caesar, & you will be left saying "Et tu, Brute", which you nearly did just that.

There was a jury who deliberated for 1 hour Not Guilty on all counts.

Yet again, the Barbarians win . requiesta en pache

There is no jury? This case depends on the verdict of 1 man!?! Mistrial

Solution : Don't be allied to the same alliance for 7 years. Yes I'm aware you signed Guardian in 2019. I'm also aware you've never fought against Guardian before & have been on their side in every global you've participated in. That's stagnation at it's finest. Literally Changeup.

So are we just going to ignore the part of the story here where you actively engaged in creating an internal fifth column of PIRU people and kept trying to stack elections and play up factionalism. It's really easy to point to the failing of an alliance and point the finger somewhere else and ignore the part of the story that actually got you fired and removed.

And yes, very well said and written, @palsada

5 or 6.

How many mergers did EotR have in total?

The invite I originally posted was expired. I have since replaced it with a working link. Here it is: https://discord.gg/j8FBFJaWg9 Did a master hacker and/or intelligent AI sabotage the original invite?????? The plot thickens.

Banned, thanks

free my !@#$ borg

NPhObia is certainly stagnating politics. IMO There's only been one really notable war since that time, Guns and Roses, but ultimately it had minimal long term consequences and as such the cycle of relatively bland wars continues. It's certainly possible for this game to have rivalries that are purely IC, and for there to be villains that aren't trying to destroy the game. People aren't stepping up to the plate because everyone is afraid of being rolled the instant they grow marginally larger than another sphere, or being called toxic for imposing peace terms and trying to gain any competitive edge.

Perhaps you can shine some light and illuminate us on who they are?

Simply, short, straight to the point. Unfortunately I have no clue who lighthouse is.

There is only one @Ugosal (Ugo)

Sunray Victoria recognizes that we were at war with Black Knights and Hollywood /s/SuperCholaX

Had fun playing this game with yall for nearly 2 years, gl to everyone moving forward. It's time to rest now. Goodbye guys

My alliance is the best, that alliance SUCKS.

Being completely unbiased (even though they are in my bloc), I have heard and seen many good things from the militaries of Eclipse, Cataclysm, and Hand of Fate. I've also heard good things about The Knights Radiant's military prowess. Those are the most notable that come to mind, for me, and if I missed some (can guarantee I did) it's because I haven't been in the broader meta long enough to have seen/heard the others' military capabilities in a significant way.

Again what is this magical world you are talking about before IQ? I have been in leadership positions since the start of this game, and I am straight up telling you, we are currently in the golden age of interesting politics in PnW. Back in this magical land of PnW you seem to remember, I believe my old alliance VE fought Guardian almost every single war. We had 2 major globals a year and people would complain constantly on the OWF how boring shit was because we would go months between wars. It would generally be the same groups hitting each other, with a few alliances shifting back and forth every war. Go to the wiki, go look it up. Alliance leaders are not going to dissolve their blocks, because its not in their best interests, you would have the 3 or 4 biggest alliances just roll in and destroy anyone they want. That is the entire point of having blocs, it gives smaller alliances the chance to compete on the same footing as the big dogs. This is why alliances form blocs in the first place, for security, and to help them work toward their political goals. If you are in a bloc, and you don't agree with what your bloc is trying to do, you should leave your bloc. Now I cannot speak about how all blocs work, but I can say that in my bloc, all member alliances have a voice, its not just Guardian, or TKR, or TI, that decides what our bloc does. If someone really doesn't want to do something, either we don't do it, or we go our separate ways (except Oblivion, they just do whatever they want) If one alliance is railroading your entire bloc, again, I would recommend you leave your bloc, and find one that is more in-line with your politics. For the record, NPO did not create bloc politics, we have had blocks since the start of the game. The reason we are seeing more isolated blocs is because when the treaty web was an actual web, treaty chains would cause huge headaches with things like opsec, and also allow shitty alliances to dodge out of wars, and no one likes it when alliances hide behind their treaties to avoid wars. Isolated blocs forces everyone to fight and people know exactly who they can count on when the time comes. As for post war terms, that is a slippery slope, you put crushing terms on someone, but they are going to come back and try to do the same thing to you, and its going to escalate back and forth until you have a 9 month war, and a 10 page peace document. In theory you think putting terms on somebody is fun, and it can be fun to wield that power over a defeated opponent. But what is not fun, is when someone does it to you, and you have no leverage to stop them, the only leverage you have is to drag out the war and hope that the winning side decides its better to end the war than humiliate its opponent, this is how wars drag on for months. That is not the game you want to play, I promise you that. You refer to GnR as an example of Rose getting white peace and that being boring. Here is a little secret we haven't shared, holding down 3 blocks at the same time is not easy and extremely resource intensive. It was in our best interest to get that war ended when we did. We def won that war, but if they wanted to drag out the peace negotiations because we asked for something crazy, there is a chance we could have eventually lost. As for people being able to build back after a war, this is what all well run alliances should be able to do. This has been the case since the beginning of the game. If you have half a brain, you don't start a war you cannot afford to recover from, plus your econ department should always have enough funds to be able to bounce back afterwards, that's why its called a warchest. If it takes you more than say a week to get back up and running after a war, your alliance has failed you. Would it be more fun for everyone if alliance leadership could get its entire membership involved with large scale decisions, I bet most alliance leaders would love to do it (I believe grumpy is the only alliance in the game that does this). The problem is they cant, because you always have a few people in every alliance that cant keep their mouths shut, and that basically destroys any chance of an alliance being able to do anything. So 98% of the player base is stuck in the dark till the absolute last minute. It's why general membership loves leaks, because it lets them in on the secret, but the sad part is, if they could be trusted to keep their mouths shut, they wouldnt need leaks, because their alliance could just tell them. if there's not 5 e's its not SWEEEEET Ronny D!

I'm afraid I disagree with your assessment of things. I'm not entirely sure when you entered this game Adam but as articulated by Keegoz above, the bi-polar era was extremely predictable and stale. Sydnisphere, succeeded by EMC fought NPO on repeat. Essentially we fought, we NAPed and at the end of the NAP we built up and fought again. Rinse and repeat. Eventually we attempted to move away from that stale politics, and a shift started to occur pre-NPOLT but really never came into full fruition until afterwards. Politics right now are extremely lively, the game in my opinion was on a very troubling decline just a couple years ago. However, with this new era of multi-polarity, combined with a influx of new, (younger players:/) the game seems to have gotten a second life. With the various spheres in the game right now, no one truly knows what the next war will be and who will be involved. Pre-NPOLT, everyone knew and on what date the next war would break out, it was like clock work.

Tech usually gets cheaper the more it's in production (Apple phones don't count), so what if Projects got cheaper, the more nations that buy them (even if they destroy it afterwards). I'm thinking like 120% of current prices initially, but once 500 nations have bought it, it's 110%, 1000 it's 100%, 2000 nations it's 90%, 3000 nations it's 80% and then it gets capped there. It'd help become a money sink for those rich bast nations with too much money on hand, then over time become more affordable for the rest of us plebs.

𝅘𝅥𝅯 just because it's in a paradox game 𝅘𝅥𝅯 𝅘𝅥𝅯 doesn't mean you can cram it in here 𝅘𝅥𝅯

Welcome to lighthouses forums!

Why did most of them join TKR then?

No other evidence has come up against Borg and the people testifying against him have personal reasons to attack him. Innocent.