A History of Ixnay (OOC): Difference between revisions

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=Background=

Some of the work originates from an abortive IxMemoir by Spelf began in 2017, when that kind of thing was fashionable and en vogue. He was encouraged by Burg, and it spawned a short lived IxMemoir of Burg's that ended shortly before Burg did anything of import or interest for the region. The text was presented as it was in the final work with later additions within the memoir section itself appearing in italics; all portions after it were written in 2019 and later. Consequently, the work shifts in tone and style beginning with the recounting of events in early 2014; the section "The Beginning" was additionally added in 2019. The various sources of text have been demarcated within this document, with the 2022 recollections and onward forming different sources of text than the original Spelfiad "IxMemoir".

=Text=

==The Beginning==

ICly, the early High Golden Age was dominated by a rivalry between Urcea and the UIF regarding the status of Pel, a large protectorate of Urcea's that took the place and IC position of the player nation of the same name. The Darklanders appear to have still been around at this time, and presumably the Audonians were with them, and this soft cold war presumably still made up the majority of IC interaction. This era also saw many new nations come and go on Crona, which had been added during the latter portion of 2014 and had become something of a tutorial island. The Snowlandish Betrayal occurred due to Heku's position in Crona before his relocation to southwestern Sarpedon early in 2015. During this period, Ixnay was really trying to reconceive of itself as the entirety of the IC world rather than just as a continent floating in a sea of continents which constituted a larger NationStates continuity. In early 2015, this movement and conception was just in its earliest stages and would not be contemplated as a full measure until the reboot later in the year.

OOCly, Absurrania dominated the first half this period and remained influential throughout it. The Fundamental Statute called for some mostly powerless Vice Delegates, and during Absurrania's tenure as Delegate he ruled alongside Insui, Luxew, Palmeria, and Latin as Vice Delegates, each evidently for one term. I cannot emphasize enough how much the elections and OOC politics of this time were a central feature of regional interest and discussion. Term limits were implemented in February 2015 as a check on Abs, and accordingly Latin became Delegate with Abs as his Vice Delegate at the end of April 2015. Abs would still remain extremely prominent within his role as Vice Delegate and would attempt to return later that year. The April 2015 election saw Heku and Corumm as a joint ticket defeated overwhelmingly by the incumbent team.

The major controversy of this period was over statistics. Prior to the IxStats reforms, all members of the region simply used the stats of their NationStates country, which are determined mostly as a function of how long a nation exists within game. Accordingly, Urcea and Kiravia were the largest countries as the oldest players in Ixnay. This created a bloated statistical situation as both countries were well into the high 10s, low 20s billions of population by 2015. This created a power deficiency between them and newer players and also created what some complained to be an unrealistic world population. Reform was often talked about, but the discussion was a bitter, bitter one for most of the period of the debate. Ixnay was allegedly, and I don't know to this day if this is true, one of the last semi-serious RP regions to use game stats. Latin appears to have championed significant reforms with my assistance, although the balance of who-did-what is now beyond my recollection. A poll of the region in May of 2015 approved "RP Stats" compared to "Game Stats" by a margin of 19 to 12. A subsequent amendment to the Fundamental Statute, approved 20-3, created a new RP Stat convention which set every player's population stats at 10% of their Game Stats, which I thought was a relatively fair compromise. This principle, I believe, continued on for some years after that, and Urcea and Kiravia being in the single billion plus range survives by convention today. Later in the year, a single, cohesive time scale was approved nearly unanimously, 24-1, with only Corumm voting no. The much-mocked "LatinTime" established the first ticking-clock RP time scale for Ixnay, setting it at 2024. A distant derivation of this system survives today.

One could argue the end of the golden era occurred with the exit of Abs from the scene. Absurrania, the country (also called UIF), had been a central part of IC play, and the player was central to OOC politics. Eventually, the UIF's IC ambitions got the better of it. Without its Darkland allies, the UIF was drawn into a war with Amerigo and a new player called Jakee. It has always been my suspicion, though never confirmed, that Abs functionally ragequit because the country he spent a year building was out of options. It is also possible that the puppet situation was going to be exposed, ruining his OOC reputation. A long-running joke and, increasingly, theory is that Abs signed up to fight with the {{wp|Daesh}}. Whatever the case, he disappeared on July 21st, 2015 - his last words being "well I have to go to sleep". Sleep on, king.

===IxReboot Era===

In August 2015, casual conversations between myself and Latin gradually emerged into a new idea - Ixnay's first full reboot. The pre-reboot canon included a very large and tangled train of events, half-lore, and functionally IC superstition. This included Darklands Cold War lore, Sarpedon (IxProp) lore entirely dependent on the UIF, half-remembered pre-Urcea era stuff dating back to the mid 2000s that I had tried to integrate, and various other sometimes contradictory or immersion breaking issues. We were dealing with events and an IC history that no player actually remembered as well as ones where the central characters were completely removed from existence. Accordingly, the casual conversations took on significantly more momentum within staff circles. Before I go on to describe what happened, my great regret - and the thing that made IxReboot so controversial - was that nearly all the planning happened behind closed doors. I generally believe IxReboot to not only be the best choice staff ever made - and the one that allowed Ixnay to survive the coming storm - but the fact it was dictated to players, rather than solicited their input, caused major problems. It also caused a semi-continuous rift between myself and Pauldustllah that was not mended until around 2020.

The fundamental idea of IxReboot was not only to cast away the old lore but to rearrange the map in such a way that fostered immersion. Prior to IxReboot, new players were put anywhere on the map that looked good, regardless of culture or religion. IxReboot changed this, grouping players generally by culture. It wasn't perfect and didn't reach refinement until 2019; for example, Germans were put in both Levantia and Crona. As part of this, Pauldustllah, Amerigo, and others were shunted off to Crona. Heku was moved to more or less his present location. My recollection is that we also put Insui where she ended up on Sarpedon. I believe Palmeria basically remained where it was pre-reboot, creating a Latin/Romance corridor on Sarpedon. Other miscellaneous cultural groupings occurred. By the time the process was completed, the whole world was more or less sorted in cultural or rational roleplay reasons rather than all over the place.

===Black Thursday Collapse===

I would like to clear the record for a moment. In months following what we now call "Black Thursday", in a place of anger I made claims that members who left on that day, most and especially Latin, did so without as much as an explanation or a goodbye. In hindsight, and reviewing the record, these claims were completely untrue. As indicated above, at 4:46 PM on Thursday, March 9th, 2016, I did receive an email. It was respectful, explaining that he and other members, had a difference of opinion regarding the direction of the region. It also included an updated version of the map which removed everyone who was leaving. Beyond stating that our core members - Latin, Malay, Ghant, and later Azur (in a different direction) and I think Ormata (?) - left, I don't really have much to say about them or where they ended up. This history is more focused on Ixnay, the community, and the events of 3/9/16 as it relates to the community. As Latin was serving as Delegate, this was not only a spiritual blow to the region but also totally crippled its leadership.

During Black Thursday, I was obviously abscent from the community. This created a lack of leadership within the community. The sudden loss of core members, plus lack of leadership, made it seem evident to everyone that Ixnay had reached its conclusion. That Thursday, and the next 1-2 days afterward, were the period of the greatest uncertainty in the history of Ixnay. Part of the issue was that many of the players had been bit actors or peripheral players during the pre-Thursday time. To my recollection, the remaining community was myself, Kirav, Heku, Corumm, Kron, Amerigo, Jakee, Kuhlfros, Kistan, Insui, a player called Helvianir, and maybe a handful of others - sorry if I forgot you. A sense of malaise and people looking for a lifeboat set in - including Heku, who to his everlasting shame attempted to start Nevias. However, as IRC admin and sometimes-delegate, Heku found himself in a position to eventually take charge, to his everlasting credit. Heku basically assumed control over a hollowed-out community with Kron more or less as his second-in-command, and those two began to pick up the pieces. From that date on, Heku has essentially been a fixture in Ixnay's leadership and functionally elevated himself to my level of importance and authority within the community.

Those were dark months, and I remained absent for many of them. We managed to stop the bleeding and began to pick up the pieces, ensuring no members left and that Ixnay would continue to exist. Some former members attempted to poach people, but most remained strong. The absolute worst of Black Thursday had ended by the end of March, but to this day it remains probably the worst day in Ixnay's history. From a personal point of view, I was now fairly isolated within Ixnay. This was the era of randoms becoming regulars for a brief time - "Tits", Akai, and Santh. Slak came around this time and was on-and-off for about four years. Heku and I have our historic differences, and to be frank I never liked Kron. For the time being, I was lacking in any sort of RP/lore partner. This era was functionally an in-between time. On the bright side, Black Thursday arguably gave IxReboot the space to breathe. The community was coming to a shift from "geopolitical roleplay with decent factbooks" to something ''else'' - but it took time to discover what that was.

===The Burg Renaissance and Silver Age===

===The Spelf Renaissance and Canadian Drama===

I would add, during this period (2019), there was a "Third Departure" and "Fourth Departure" to follow Black Thursday and whatever the hell 2017 was, except this one was so irrelevant that it doesn't merit its own section. I believe Helvi and a number of people left to form some other community in the face of some real or perceived insult or banning. Later, and I think this was 2020, a large contingent of Canadian players left briefly over a controversy between Azi and Cronzcovina, and/or admin response to that - I don't really remember. Nearly everyone from the Fourth Departure would eventually return.

===The Pandemic and Wipe===

===The Second Golden Age===

[[Category:IXWB]]