A History of Ixnay (OOC)

A History Of Ixnay is a recounting of events throughout the history of Ixnay as recalled by Spelf. It is noted for its considerable subjectivity and failure to meet any basic standard for what might be considered a "history". It was started in 2017 by the author but was abandoned and not recalled again until 2019, when the author began working on it. Consequently, it features several different styles of writing and arbitrarily moves between a history of the region generally and a recalling of Spelf's time in the region, specifically. A major addendum was added in 2022 which included numerous factual deficiencies, entire incidents and episodes left out, and other significant problems with narrative, with additions included in 2023. A post-Map Completion Project write up from 2024 was also included. It is generally the author's intent to provide a neutral point of view and not besmirch the character of any individual person.

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".

The "source" eras of the documents are maintained below because they themselves are of historical interest; they portray the different views of the author and writing style from different points of time

Text

The Beginning

Ixnay in 2004. All of these players are long gone, but in some instances their names still name some places in Sarpedon as of 2023.

"Ixnay". The word itself, of course, is pig latin gibberish nonsense. To truly understand Ixnay, one must put themselves in the mindset of the internet in the early 2000s. Things were not as developed as they would become in the 2010s and beyond; memes were often crude, simple, and with limited shelf life. This was internet humor in the 2000s, and it infiltrated everything that was done. Consequently, when the HTML browser game NationStates started in late 2002, it attracted much of this humor which permeated game culture in the early years. With this in mind, it's easy to see how a group of school friends from England arrived upon the name "Ixnay", which they did when they founded the region in early 2003. Pieces of Ixnay's early history have been preserved, particularly in the memory of MacPhoenix Apostasy, an early member. MacPhoenix recounted that he assumed control of map updates in 2004 and maintained Ixnay's early forum and member lists; the latter of which still exist and can be found here (he has since removed this page) while the forums are lost to history. MacPhoenix was Ixnay's second cartographer; the first, Terra Nievus, is probably responsible for drawing the shape of Sarpedon, the "continent of Ixnay". The maps from that period are included in this section. MacPhoenix recounted that the region was contentious even then, but it was active. They had a rudimentary football league (this was originally linked before MacPhoenix removed it system, a regional Olympics, and other activities between them. A regional wiki existed on Wikispaces, a service that closed in 2018 to the loss of all of its data. It recounted a Great War between Uzbeckistan (MorningStar) and the other nations in the region culminating with Uzbeckistan's ceasing to exist in late 2006. They also began a major region-wide railway system called IxRail, an on-again off-again staple until the 2015 Reboot.

2012 decline era IxMap, made by Urcea; his first map style for Ixnay.

By 2009-10, most of the first generation of Ixnay had gone. All Peoples had ceased to exist, making the member Solisbury the leading member of the region administratively and culturally. Solisbury began the long tradition of the administrator-cartographer as well, and during their time in office Ixnay saw its first crude vector map courtesy of Microsoft Powerpoint. Solisbury's reign continued until 2012 when they ceased to exist, when the region entered a critical decline in membership and activity coupled with uncertainty at the top. Ixnay would have five separate Delegates from Jan 2012 to December 2013. Most notable of these was Kazomal, originally called Katzistanza, who was one of the region's oldest members. Under Kazomal's administration, the region declined to four members by December and appeared to be on the cusp of one of many NationStates regions of antiquity which would find its end.

The Spelfiad (Memoir from 2017, incomplete)

Introduction

I don’t exactly remember December 28th, 2013, but I remember the intrigue leading up to that. I was one of but four members of Ixnay, three of which were members of the World Assembly. The one who was not – Lacus Magni – was the only surviving product of my 2013 recruiting effort, one of two that I had conducted despite not being Delegate. The other remaining players, Kazomal and the Haunted Woods (he of Haunted Herald (OOC) fame), were mostly inactive, but the endorsements of myself and Woods kept Kazomal as Delegate, meaning that unless Woods pulled his endorsement, Kazomal would remain. I convinced Lacus Magni – henceforth referred to as Latin – to join the World Assembly. I pulled my endorsement of Kazomal, he endorsed me, and by the 28th of December I became Delegate. I immediately recommenced recruitment efforts, and even moved my own puppet Constantinalia in – against regional rules, I might add – in order to boost the regional population and make it more appealing. I also included an older plotline about a claim on former Brasland - once a cornerstone member of the region who left but had a royal marriage with my country - as an initial offering. It didn’t go anywhere, but the colonial region of Landder (“Land der Bras” as initially formulated) endured for more than two years even as that initial plotline faded.

I had always wanted to be the Delegate of a region. I always tend to want to be in charge – I guess it’s just in my nature, some accusing me of being power hungry. I suppose that’s true, but I also want to do things in positions of power I get. My rise to the Delegacy was not one that could have been reasonably foreseen – as a 16 year old, I was expelled from Ixnay in 2010 for, among other things, foul language and a poor temperament towards other players. I loved the region, though – I enjoyed the atmosphere the most of all. I had hopped around to several regions before and after – primarily Tyrrhenia – but Ixnay stuck. I don’t know why. I had never really been in a casual roleplaying community. Many, particularly Tyrrhenia, had activity requirements, and I just couldn’t pump out material. I liked the idea of being in a region that cooperated when I had a sudden momentary burst of creativity while simultaneously being a region that would tolerate me sitting around shooting the shit for months with nothing important going on in-universe. In hindsight, I'm sure a lot of my failure to produce was a consequence of age; productivity comes with experience.

Ixnay after my 2013 recruiting drive. This map features Kirav (Carthinova) and Kistan for the first time.

Though not Delegate, I had launched a major recruiting drive twice, both times primarily relying on roleplay connections I had made on the NationStates onsite forum, especially through a Papal Conclave roleplay. These two efforts occurred once in the fall of 2012 surrounding a plotline I introduced that brought Ixnay forward in time, and then again in 2013 when I undid those and adopted the timeline the region would use until the middle of 2015. That timeline set, as well as my becoming Delegate later in the year, were the two key events to usher in what many of what are now the older players consider the “Classic Era” of Ixnay. I would not have known at the time; not controlling the Delegacy meant any recruiting effort was doomed to fail as the Delegate could not vet potential recruits fast enough. I despaired, finally, after the second recruiting attempt. I conceded that Ixnay was doomed to dwindle and die – at eleven members following the recruiting failure – and that my dreams of a large vibrant region reminiscent of Tyrrhenia or the other great old ladies of the roleplay world were doomed to not come to pass. I guess, then, the 2013 “coup”, if it could be called that, was simply the result of boredom from being on winter break – I was a Sophomore at the -REDACTED- at the time. I didn’t fully expect it to work – I expected a telegram back from Lacus Magni saying that he just couldn’t bring himself to join the World Assembly. I would have accepted, stirred that I had failed again, and moved on. That is not what came to pass. I became Delegate and determined that I would conform Ixnay to my ideal while trying to stay true to its history and traditions – an extensive, ten year history.

Building a Core

If Ixnay had relied on its strong player relations, I knew I needed to build a community of roleplayers that I knew were primarily social, and so I turned to my old connections. First, those of the Conclave roleplay; Lacus Magni had joined through this, and I reached out to Kirav and Kistan next. Both players had been in the region during the 2013 effort (Kirav as a puppet), and I knew both had no real ties to their regional communities. Kirav was an older player – a veteran of the late 2000s “golden age of II” like myself, and I knew he would be a big get. It took some maneuvering and negotiation, but he came over with his primary nation soon enough. I considered this a move that improved the outward legitimacy of the region. It should be said I didn’t know if Kirav’s presence actually brought a single member to the region, but my only model for a region at the time was Tyrrhenia, which thrived on the late 2000s-type player. A later recollection of events by Burg confirmed that the presence of Kirav did indeed bring the region a certain pedigree of legitimacy, drawing him in. In my mind, getting Kirav to join meant that this effort was real. We had landed a pretty decently-sized fish, not a puppet, but the real deal. This set the recruiting goals for the next few months that did not truly come to pass – getting disaffected, veteran players. We did acquire a few, but in hindsight it was not where our bread was buttered. My view of NationStates as that late 2000s-style place was out of date but it was the only thing I had to go on.

Ixnay immediately after the Spelfian coup, with a new playerbase introduced.

Soon, several other players came. Most of the Conclave players had not yet responded, but a player from 2013 I had recruited named Talion Union came back. I got two players named Canete and Blue Cross Island from a random roleplay thread, and by the fourth of the year Ixnay had about eleven players. I had already considered myself a success; after all, I had increased the region’s membership by about two hundred percent. That would pale in comparison, however to what would come next.

I don’t know what happened – maybe people getting back from their Christmas breaks, but I seemed to be hitting gold on every telegram for the next three weeks. Ixnay was beginning to be a real time commitment – and I don’t mean that in a negative. At the time, my then-girlfriend was staying at her father’s new apartment, which was really an illegal basement in someone’s house in -REDACTED-. He worked nights, and she wanted to be there, so I spent something like two weeks in this basement. It wasn’t a shithole per se, just small. Her and I were sleeping on the dirty pullout in the living room. The first memory of Ixnay ever impacting my life in any meaningful way – and someone else noticing, which would become common with the time commitment – was that, while laying together on our respective laptops, she asked me what I was doing when she saw I was editing the region map in Photoshop. I gave some bullshit answer because I didn’t particularly feel like explaining what NationStates was. Soon after, maybe a few days later, I was updating the map several times a day due to the influx. She got frustrated and closed the laptop on me. Suffice to say (not because of this incident mind you), I no longer have her around - but I do have Ixnay.

One of the early actors we had was a transgender player named Cyllea. This dude – he identified as a male during his time in Ixnay – was a trip. He must have been around fifteen or sixteen and that was my first experience as the regional executive dealing with that kind of age and the erratic behavior that accompanies it. I first, during this time, understood that I was wrong in 2010 when expelled from the region, and I understood what Solisbury, the then-delegate, went through. At this point I took a stance I more or less hold still – I don’t really believe in bans, I believe in patience and that being patient in newer and younger players will reap huge rewards for the region later on, as I believe the younger players who are a bit, for a lack of a better term, “nubby” will grow up in the region and become committed members. I gave Cyllea the Constantinalia nation and it has also gone to several players since, perhaps most successfully Kronata, who became Vice Delegate in 2016. This abortive “mentorship” has worked successfully on a few occasions, particularly with two players called Absurrania (who will be discussed in depth later) and The United States of North Amerigo, though there have been others over the years.

Ixnay as it stood at the end of January 2014, reaching a new high of activity and now including the Darklands.

By the end of the month of January 2014, as new members came in daily, we had an astounding 43 members. If you asked me at that point, I would have told you my work was basically complete. In the years 2003-2013, Ixnay’s membership height was 44, which I would soon tie in February. We had formed a core membership. The key additions including Aerolah, Malaysii, and Luxew, three players we absorbed from a region we annexed called Audonia. At this time, Ixnay adopted the "subregion" model - annexing existing NationStates regions under the Ixnay umbrella with promises of autonomy and culture retention in addition to separate parts of the forum and self-governance. Audonia was the first such subregion. Kistan agreed to return, an older player named Pauldustllah joined, we annexed a region called The Darklands, another subregion, and we even had three veteran players called Yalos, Arcerion, and San Pellegrino Romana (albeit through a puppet) join. The annexation of the Darklands was somewhat controversial both on our side and in their region and would prove to be the first fight of many relating to their relationship with us. Other players that would come to stay, such as Sawra, Pelaxia, and Absurrania, joined during this time as well.

I think the map included for this period really tells the story. I had wanted a vibrant region, and this region was vibrant, even the map was colorful. It was not without its challenges, but this was truly a kind of naïve period for the region. We had acquired our base core members that would carry us for the next year and beyond, and the fault lines had not yet completely formed between players. The only issues that the region had at the time was a player named Sakatia who threatened to DDoS the regional forum in March while impersonating a player called The Sovietyeto, who was still in the region as of 2016-17. There was also a growing but extant fault between Kazomal and myself, who did not necessarily like the direction the region was going, seemed vaguely resentful of my 2013 recruiting efforts, and, in my belief, never particularly liked me from the time I was forced out of Ixnay in 2010. Still, the region existed in relative peaceful coexistence. As mentioned, we had a regional core that sustained us for a year and a half and partially beyond that. The only “core, older” players missing by this early stage were Kuhlfros and Cartadania, the former of which had done Conclave roleplay and both lived in the same region.

One of the innovations of this time period was the Regional Congress. This was a long-desired ask of members of the region dating back to the Classic Era and we finally implemented it. Back in this period, there was a sort-of unclear blending between the IC and OOC responsibilities of Delegate and regional governance, so the Delegacy existed in an IC capacity atop an IC regional governance, which included the new Regional Congress. Truly, the Regional Congress became an exercise to signal my experience with legislative proceedings to total strangers online, but in my view, it was the most effective and worked the best of any regional government or League of Nations before or since. It had a rules committee which considered proposed legislation, there was open debate on legislation, and the bills had real consequences for how the region existed in the IC universe - such as land and sea usage and the like.

Growing Fissures and First Fights

I decided in March, as I have been increasingly known to do, take a quick break from the region. There was a few reasons for this. 1. It was a period of increasing intensity in real life events at school, particularly Republican clubs and the Student Government, but moreso 2. I was undergoing the experience of the end of my relationship which had been going on for nearly three years. I don’t mean to use this as an excuse, but to provide some context as for why I did this the first time. In my stead, the head of the Darklands, a player called Kauvara, who had been elected Vice Delegate (an invention popularly demanded and implemented in January to account for a lack of elected Delegacy) took control of the region. In the course of three weeks (dating March 8th through March 22nd, 2014), several changes were proposed, others were implemented, such as a regional supreme court of some kind, which I strongly opposed. The court became something of a pet project of Sawra and ended up being ineffective.

Upon my return, as had become somewhat recurrent and pattern-forming, there was some anger with me for trying to reassert myself as Delegate. Public opinion shifted - briefly - in favor of Kauvara and the Darklanders and it was a struggle, but ultimately, which the support of the old guard and others, I managed to reassume the Delegacy and ultimately mitigate some of the harmful effects of the changes. This was the flashpoint, in my view, of later feuds between myself and the Darklanders. Infamously, around this time, they took issue with my saying that Ixnay was “not a democracy”, not pretended to be, yet they took a screencap (or threatened to) as if I had ever intimated otherwise.

I believe my own personal failings (for lack of a more accurate term) also caused some tension. One of the players of The Darklands, a guy named Constitutional Empire of Scocialist (sic) Provinces and I could not agree on anything and particularly on any issue of values - he was a militant atheist and claimed to be some kind of drug using fornicating degenerate, though I suspect there was a great degree of LARP involved there. It was natural we would clash on just about everything. I don’t know to this day whether or not he and the others - particularly an uppity Dutchman named Prizyetsa - really cared about democratization issues or just played them up publicly as a defensible pretext to dislike me. Whatever the case, a “Urcea-CESP” brawl would basically ensue night-in and night-out for months in 2014, only subsiding later on but never truly going away until the Darklanders left.

There was also some general drama going on in the region mostly independent of my involvement. The Sovietyeto became a large problem even for the Darklanders and was kicked on down to the continent of Ixnay. Through some questionable but mostly legitimate means, he came to acquire a large portion of territory. Eventually, had one of many incidents leading to a “rage quit” of sorts, necessitating division of his territory in May via a decree of the Delegate. This was perhaps the high water mark of the IC/OOC blending. This partition was one of the major beginnings of a point of serious contention in the region that gripped the region until its resolution in the middle of 2015. This point of contention would later drive Kazomal, who had been in the region in some form or another since its beginning, from the region due to disputes between other players and himself.

Another troublemaker named the Eorlingan Empire also came to stir up chaos in the region around this time. He began making broadsides against the fundamental roleplay mechanics of the region at the time - mainly, using in-game stats to determine in-character national characteristics, but also general godmodding mini-maxing. He would play a role in helping me redraw the Ixnay region map (he redrew the Darklands for me) that is still in use today, but was another individual who was generally curmudgeon-like. As can be noted within the map gallery, at this point I redrew the map to a larger, clearer form, still used mostly today.

It was also around this time that the first true notion of complaining about LOTA came to be. LOTA, the “Levantia and Odoneru Treaty Association”, was an in-character alliance of Kirav, Urcea, Kistan, Kuhlfros, and the Latin Empire. It was the most powerful alliance in-universe (especially during the era of game stats) and generally complaints were lobbied that its power stifled roleplay. In retrospect I will admit there was probably some truth in this - fear of a LOTA intervention in one’s affairs probably did, indeed, stifle roleplay. This time period was probably the first high watermark for LOTA. LOTA was opposed by the Darklanders ICly (and OOCly) and, despite clear superiority, the Darklanders, and particularly CESP, argued for their superior based on technological means and other questionable WMD developments. This gave rise, later, to the reference of deus ex machina in game technology as “Norftek” (in reference to the Northern Union, or the Darklands), also used as a term of general mockery for players claiming technological superiority.

The Spelf 2022/2023 Recollection Collection

The Low Golden Age

The Low Golden Age was a period in which activity was buzzing, but the region was still saddled with many Darklanders and other types of malcontents. It forms a prelude to the High Golden Age, also perhaps better known as the Absurranian Era, where the majority of play revolved around the allegiance of the United Islamic Federation, a country established by a player named Absurrania. Abs joined in early or mid-2014 and took a liking to most everything in the region and was briefly aligned with Urcea and LOTA before switching to the Darklanders. As has happened in that time, allegiances ICly also formed essential blocs OOCly. This era was essentially defined by the LOTA vs. Darklands IC and OOC enmity, in many cases the latter especially lead by myself and CESP. The UIF was the critical hinge point of this ICly, and the Audonians - at that time, essentially a player named Malaysii (and future forms of that) as well as Azura and Montemayor - as swing actors. There were some other loose agent players at this time as well, including the aforementioned Palmeria and Sawra as well as the Talion Union, an on-again off-again member of Ixnay from 2013-2019. Insui may have joined around this time as well if that was not already mentioned at some point above. This period was not all sunshine and rainbows. There was a nonsense incident with a member called Sakatia - the happenings and motivations of which I don't really remember - but the country was divided and formed a long-lasting joke about Sakatia ruling the entire region.

This period, roughly corresponding up through the joining of Heku and Corumm in late 2014, saw a cataclysmic event on the NationStates side of things. The NS Region "Ixnay", which had been founderless since the CTE of All Peoples in ca. 2007, was taken over by raiders in the summer of 2014. The raid occurred at yet another time of my taking a break and occurred in a fumbled handoff of power from Malaysii back to me, although the timing was poorly done on my part and we probably could have done it successfully had we known we were the target of a raid. Malaysii became Interim Delegate as he had been the elected Vice Delegate during the period of absence. The poor guy was jokingly mocked by Abs basically every day for being a poor leader. The jokes were almost all in jest and as far as I know Abs had no ill intent other than believing it should have been him in charge, but Malaysii took it seriously and believed he was hated and loathed, being one of the causes (as well as my summer return from college) for the botched transition. After efforts to liberate the region failed, I migrated 90% of the community to "Greater Ixnay", which has been the NationStates vehicle of the community since. The raid probably represents a long-term turning point away from NationStates as a viable community organizational tool. At the time, we were using Chatzy and had not long before taken up use of an off-site forum, which became increasingly important in use. By establishing Greater Ixnay, I also solidified myself in the role as founder, establishing a dynamic with other members that would prove to be an issue going forward. It was important to me at the time, however, as my primus inter pares style leadership role was now anchored in a new, tangible title and position. While for a long time the idea of referring to myself as founder felt as if it were a pretense - All Peoples founded Ixnay in 2003 after all - the title now (as of August 2022) sits well with me, having been in Ixnay longer than anyone in its history and having been there for the transition from Early NS Ixnay to modern Ixnay.

The raid, I think, may have ended the influence of the Darklanders as they may have only been tenuously connected to us at the time anyway - a survey of the maps would reveal they remained on the map so we can assume some partial activity, but their time in the sun OOCly had come to a close.. Some of them did come along and camped in the new region, mostly inactive, until 2019 or so. The latter half of 2014 was pretty eventful for the region as a whole as the refounding more or less constituted a philosophical, if not canonical, reboot. A new charter was issued for Ixnay by Kiravia (I believe) and myself in consultation, combining many long-standing rules of the NationStates forum "International Incidents", which was the primary style guide and roleplaying background for most countries and remained a kind of spiritual predecessor for Ixnay play well into 2019. Other sources for the charter included half remembered or implemented standards for the region created in the earlier months of the Spelfine era, and included strict guides for elections. This charter, the Fundamental Statute, was intended to end many of the OOC squabbling about democracy and other governance issues that defined much of 2014. The preamble of the Fundamental Statute read "With our refounding and exodus/migration to a new region, it was discussed that the focus needs to be put back into RP and not on OOC disputes. To this end, myself and several other members came up with a system that will serve the region well in this capacity." With respect to ending the disputes, the Statute was a success. However, with respect to focusing it back on IC events, I would qualify it as a failure. In NationStates regions, a founder and delegate share power. The position of Delegate was decided by whoever had the most in-game endorsements and could functionally work as a democracy provided endorsements were given to the elected leader. The refounding and Fundamental Statute fulfilled regional hopes for democracy but kicked off the era of OOC Politics being front and center in the region, an institution in which Absurrania thrived and primarily focused. The era to come also became incredibly legalistic with strict and hotly debated limitations on who could vote and how elections could take place. Abs was the first delegate of this era, taking office on September 1st, 2014. He would have functional executive control of Ixnay, alongside myself, for the next nine months.

Towards the end of 2014, Heku and Corumm had joined the region. We had other new entrants at this time, including a new member named North Amerigo I believe joined around this time as well, a self-described extremely skinny Vietnamese guy who would stick around for a few years and become a moody staple. This might best be called the Era of the Puppets, as it turns out many of our new members were merely Abs puppets used to help bolster his election, something we would not discover for a long time after. The region was successful and active during this period and laid the foundation for a good 2015 year to come. As I will touch on, we added a new continent in November 2014 called Crona; this name beat out Drexa, Redderia, and North Audonia as other finalists in a regional poll.

The Low Golden Age came to an end with the migration off of Chatzy to IRC in late 2014 with the help of Heku. This inaugurated the High Golden Age and also represented Heku's first step in entrenching himself within Ixnay's power structure by gradually taking control of the logistical systems of Ixnay.

An ICN entry.

During this period, most roleplay took place on Ixnay's Zetaboards. A lot of activity was character RP, but most of it was something called "Ixnay Central News" (ICN), where news-style updates about events within player countries would be posted. These started out as rudimentary text posts but grew ever more elaborate, with each player making or taking a news template. This would remain the primary style of roleplay until the transition to Full Lore in 2016.

The High Golden Age

The High Golden Age began in very late 2014 or very early 2015. The new entrants Heku, Corumm, and Amerigo were very active, the staple LOTA members, the Audonians, and the UIF were center in the plot, and many members who would become long time members, such as Yytuskia.

The first IC event of the High Golden Age was the Snowlandish Betrayal, an incident that would come to define interpersonal relationships in Ixnay for years to come. Heku was a new member, then on Crona, and neighbored a country called Snowlandish. We included Heku within LOTA and plotted to partition the country of Snowlandish. Instead of following through on our plan, however, it was designed to give Heku a false sense of security, and the country was partitioned between myself and Kirav who preemptively invaded it. This incident soiled Urc-Heku trust for many years to come, made Heku a LOTA enemy from that point onwards (forming the basis of the eventual Western League and numerous other Sarpedon-based anti-Levantine movements).

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.

A March 2015 map. This is typical of the High Golden Age period OOCly with its accompanying IC lore continuum; observe the Darklands, geopolitically complicated IxProp (Sarpedon), and also features an early-ish Corumm and Heku.

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.

Ixnay at the time of Ghant's arrival, ca. May 2015. This map is historically significant as well for the major consolidation of landmass in Levantia, with Urcea taking its familiar shape and the kernel of Kuhlfros (Fiannria) forming.

In spring 2015, specific date unknown, Ghant joined Ixnay. Ghant is a player who has kicked around basically every region with a roleplay component in NationStates and draws a very polarized view based on his IC play style and OOC ideas. I was impressed by his resume and thought he might be a good addition to the region, but I actually received several telegrams from other regional delegates warning me that he was trouble. Regardless, with my eye on him, I let him stay, and he and I got along fairly well at first. (2023 Text Beginning). It is generally true, and true to this day, that this player is a very accomplished person as far as roleplay is concerned. However, in the long run, his character-oriented roleplay and the things he wanted to focus on (such as the all-important and all-consuming desire for realism that consumes every new Ixnay entrant) were generally not a good fit for Ixnay. It would turn out that several other long-time members, such as Malay, Latin, and others, preferred this style of play. It would come to create division in Ixnay further down the road. For a time, however, the arrival of Ghant signaled the new era of Ixnay. As mentioned, the Darkland era had waned. Roleplay, and general OOC peace, were the order of the day for most of 2015. In terms of the map, the end of the Darklands and arrival of this mini-Ghant era signaled the beginning of Ixnay as a closed world rather than a region floating in the ocean of NationStates. New continents were added, as were poles; a map demonstrates this change.

Ixnay immediately following the end of the Darklands, July, 2015. Colonial Punth, what would eventually become modern Crona, also appears here in the Antarctic region, as do new world continents.

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 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 end of Abs necessitated an IC need for a refresh. 😭😭😭

A map of Ixnay immediately pre-Reboot. Note the presence of an NPC Absurrania to fill the lore void. Kronata also first appears here, but in the eastern continents. Baclow!

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.

Getting rid of everything that came before it insulated us from further dependence on old lore and established the firm basis of Ixnay as a "Lore World" rather than a generic NationStates roleplaying region. These changes were not entirely evident at the time, but would come into play later. The post-Reboot world had its problems, though, and for a time created unrest and division among the members. This era, lasting from August 2015 through March 2016, was fraught with a lot of social problems. I also entered my first great activity recession as I began my professional career. By March 2016, I was not a daily or even weekly feature in the IRC. I was exchanging ideas with Latin over what would eventually become the Levantine Union by email, and when I received another email in that thread on the afternoon of March 9th, 2016, it was not unexpected. What was included, however, was completely unexpected and would absolutely alter the history of Ixnay going forward.

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.

Around the time of Black Thursday, we began to use our own website - IxNet.

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.

2024 Post-MCP Boredom Project

The Burg Renaissance and Silver Age

Ixnay puttered along after Black Thursday for several months until The New True Cross, a user I had met years earlier on LineartInc, approached me with interest in joining Ixnay. He came over and we discussed a Venice type idea for him; an insular metropole in northern Levantia with periphery feudal-like holdings on the mainland separate from his primary dominion. After working through some names, he picked Burgundie, and a legend was born.

Ixnay was fundamentally rebuilt in 2016 in both personnel and mission. Burg was an instant hit and became one of the key active members along with Kronata and Jakee. This period saw a reorientation away from the geopolitical competitive RP style that had dominated 2014-2016 and a new focus on creative writing and "deep lore". In this sense, Burg is responsible for the invention of lore itself. While we had some creative writing in the form of factbooks and eventually IIWiki entries, it was still peripheral. However, Burg's arrival and Jakee's maturity inaugurated an era in which creative writing and worldbuilding became the main activity of Ixnay. It was the full culmination of the changes made during the reboot, but with the reboot drama far behind us and the right personnel in place. Collaborative and shared lore between countries, which had only been done experimentally by Latin and I and then others, became the order of the day, creating the first concepts of the Holy Levantine Empire. This was the beginning of Ixnay's "Silver Age". The cast of characters was different and somewhat more ornery than the Golden Age, but activity was good and hopes were high. Kronata, as Vice Delegate, was more or less the indispensable man of the era, serving under Heku while being cartographer and major activity driver in the region.

From this period until 2019, my reliability as a narrator will significantly decline, not only qualitatively but in terms of actually knowing what was going on. I had a big meltdown in August 2016 due to my perceived loss of position. Due to my inactivity, which had stretched back to January 2016, and all the events surrounding Black Thursday, Heku had become the primary leader in Ixnay. I felt that I had basically become a second Kazomal, surpassed and overshadowed of a next generation. It was ugly, but I basically told Heku that he could have the leadership and that I was basically going to just step away. Of course I didn't really mean it, it was something said in a fit of emotion, but it - combined with personal life developments - basically ensured that I would not be an active member again until 2019.

Due to potential improprieties in Heku's part, I was briefly recalled in late 2016/early 2017. I arranged a deal by which Heku would step down as delegate after an eventful 9-month run during which time he had brought us back from the brink and that Burg would become overall asset manager for Ixnay. To some extent, this restored balance as it had taken Heku down a small peg, giving me enough of a reputational leg to stand on to return later.

Second Departure

A July 2017 map typical of the Burg era, just after the second departure.

Other players can probably tell you about the 2017 era more than I could, but I was involved in the major tentpole event and departure of that period. As was my habit, I poked my head back in and got engrossed again in the early summer of 2017. This was always controversial and made people angry, partly due to my own behavior of wanting to be respected as founder rather than guy-who-occasionally-appeared. However, I did maintain the role of being the protector of Ixnay's rules and "constitution", the Golden Bull. As was the case in pre-2019 Ixnay, OOC governance and drama was a central issue of the time in a way that it is not during the 2020s.

Jakee was a big spiritual leader of the community at this time while Kron and Burg were functionally Ixnay's day-to-day leadership. At this time, we had still retained the NationStates era leadership model, which is to say the founder (me, or Kirav in my stead) analogous to a monarch, the delegate (at this period Burg) analogous to a prime minister, and a vice delegate (Kronata at this period) who functioned as a second in command; he also served as cartographer. Heku at this time was around but had been suitably chastened during the 2016 controversy. Kirav, as ever, was also just sort of around in a sage capacity. Together all of these people formed, effectively, an executive troika that functioned beyond the mere titles retained from the NS era. Democratic selection of officers had long been abolished by my recollection, but may have still been around de jure.

My return inaugurated the usual bickering about who had what authority, the nominal and archaic role of the founder, and such similar arguments. I decided they were probably right and proposed constitutional reform. Basically, the idea was to formalize the executive troika system. Significant work went into this idea, with significant behind-the-scenes negotiating and discussion. The new system provided for an "Executive Cabinet" of the Founder (myself), the Vice Founder (Kir), two Consuls (Burg and Heku), two permanently appointed Senior Members (Kron and someone else, not sure) and a representative voting member (Jakee?) as well as three permanent non-voting members who were veterans (Paul, Rigo, and Helvi? Genuinely unsure). As you can tell, this is an extremely rigid and convoluted system, but it basically gave formal legitimacy to the de facto situation. While the Golden Bull ("constitution") from this time exists, most of the IRC side chats through which staff decisions were made have been lost, so records and recollection of this is hazy. The Golden Bull was issued formally on July 9th, ending the old offices of the region.

In addition to the great ambition of the OOC reform, there was a large IC agenda to consider as well. A great Lore Council - focused and dedicated forum to resolve 16 major lore issues - was scheduled for July. The items are interesting and worth listing, because they speak to the ambition we had at the time to creative a cohesive lore world as well as how far we would eventually come:

• Lore cleanup – writing out of vestigial parts required by former nations and general lore streamlining
• The basics of 20th century (and 21st century, as a knock-on) geopolitical diplomacy and its principle actors, particularly what the Great War was, who was involved, and why it occurred
• Changes to and thoughts about the League of Nations, its rules of order, including whether or not to adopt the Code of the League of Nations as the body of IC “international law”
• Dungeon-master type bot that also controls other IC simulation aspects like the weather – should we adopt these types of bots/simulator mechanisms and, if so, what should the parameters of its function be?
• The history of Punth, the history and scope of Punth colonization, and the relation in general of the Punths to the Western world
• “The Decline of Ix (OOC)” and a general conversation about the proliferation of non-democratic regimes, and whether or not to adopt the document formally as lore (this also bears on question #4)
• The genesis and source of Germanic peoples and the method of their spread throughout the world
• The history of linguistic groups and some kind of IxIndoEuropean (Levanto-Cronanean?) as well as a clear homeland for those speakers if adopted
• The nature of the Holy Levantine Empire in the 20th century and beyond, as well as consideration to retcon its entire existence in the present world with a potential dissolution in the 1920s
• The scope and the broad history of the Islamic World and its height of power over continental Ixnay
• Maps of the region, particularly a koppen map, but also a new timezone map and consideration of concentrations of regional resource deposits, and the method of putting them together
• The era of crusades, their parameters, who was involved, and what the result of these efforts were
• The physical realities of the IxWorld, particularly geological concerns about the map and proliferation of mountains but also concerns about astronomy, the names of the heavenly bodies, and the like
• A nature preserve somewhere in the region – where should it be and when should it have originated
• Questions regarding the Northern Empire such as its border and greatest extent, and the influences on Helvianir, Burgundie, Kuhlfros, and others
• The history of Christianity, when/how the Imperial Church split from Urceopolis, the history of the Orthodox tradition, and any other information about the Christian Churches in Crona and their general origin

In any event, this system survived for basically a week per my recollection. For reasons still unknown to me, the main beneficiaries of having their powers formalized (Kron and Rigo) began to complain of overreach on my part and other issues and left the region in a single day, forming the second great departure after Black Thursday. Santh I think was definitely a goner. Ormata may have come back and left at this time, and maybe Helvi did too, I don't really know and other people can pitch in with details. In some respects, this was a great disruption; Kron was a very active member, at the heart of many plots, and was also cartographer. It was not as soul-crushing as Black Thursday, however, because while Kron and Rigo were important members, they were not the functional "heart" of Ixnay, and most of the remaining cabinet members remained. I had to serve as Cartographer for about a week before Burg took over. Sadly, the Lore Council never took place because of all the disruption, leaving most of the issues to remain unresolved until the modern era.

At the end of this whole thing, I basically dipped out again, having lost interest once again as my personal life became more interesting (as happens in your early 20s), but presumably this whole situation also left a bad taste in my mouth. Around this time, a player called Monteangelo became very prominent; in time, he would become era defining.

IxNet was also a thing during this era, but I can't speak to it other than the fact we had our own forums with a URL. There was a lot of Crona-related hijinks going on, I think, plus a few attempted personal RPs.

Canuck Era

The post-Cabinet era saw the practical restoration of the Delegacy in early to mid 2018. The up and coming member Monteangelo, who had always disavowed leadership and office, was more or less forced to become Delegate in June 2018. For the next year or so, he would be the major tastemaker and leader of Ixnay.

Cronz joined in June 2018.

Azi was always complaining during this period. Him, Kir, and Bobbo formed a bloc of resistance.

The Spelf Renaissance and Canadian Drama

On February 13th, 2019, at 12:17 AM, Corumm sent me a TG with a picture of Ixnay's map which had finally removed me as well as a caption of "sad". This was enough motivation for me to stick my head in and do my usual complaining. I decided to stick around, however, for one reason or another. In the previous several months I felt the need for a creative outlet, working on a complicated future timeline of the collapse of the United States as well as lore for a Minecraft server. In this respect Corumm's message came at the right time. I had thought about returning to Ixnay in previous months but the previous drama and fear of attacks on my person had prevented me; this was a good impetus. Additionally, in real life I had settled down socially (having been going out with my now-wife for almost a year) and we had lost politically in real life, meaning I had less high-pressure work to do. I popped in the IRC much to the chagrin of everyone, and I was soon back on the map and contributing. After conversations about modernization, we moved to Discord from IRC in March 2019. I lived as a private citizen during this time, stepping away from founder pretense and being willingly excluded from staff chat. My reappearance helped rejuvenate Levantine lore and generally had brought some interest and intrigue after what I am told was a sleepy 2018. Heku and others generally kept expecting me to follow my modus operandi of dipping out after a few days/weeks, but by this period I had matured significantly and began to treat their criticisms as motivation to do well and surpass them rather than as occasions for rage. Selfishly diverting from the regional narrative, I ended up winning the 2019 Annual Loreward and have won several since; I actually credit my 2017-19 detractors, but I mention all of this to say that I was back and, in many ways, more productive lorewise than I ever had been previously.

There was a mini-reboot during this period spurred on by drunken Kir discussing with Helvi the nature of the world. A still-unresolved Lore Council-era issue was the issue of Germanics in Ixnay and where they came from, and why there were three "white" continents (Sarpedon, Levantia, and the 2015-19 version of Crona). At this time, Crona was different from modern Crona, which was called Punth. Crona had started in 2015 as a place to put more players, and in the reboot it became the home of most of the Germanic and American-style countries of Ixnay. The issue was still contentious as of 2019. Overnight, however, Kir and Helvi had basically come up with the genesis of what the staff would implement: namely, the elimination of Ur-Crona and the relocation of all the Germans to Levantia. This had a couple effects. It created a flashpoint between myself and Helvi/Mont which would play a role in bad relations prior to both of them leaving. It would anchor Levantia as a major center of world lore. It would also alienate Pauldustllah who was being moved in yet another reboot, and he would end up leaving again unfortuately after bad blood between myself and him started. Ixnay & The Levantias (OOC) was the genesis of much of this reboot, and would become the spiritual successor of The Decline of Ix (OOC) in terms of big ideas.

My time as a private citizen would come to an end as I was given a loose staff chat role at the pleasure of Heku and Mont, which means I was also often removed from it when drawing their ire. Mont was the formal and official Delegate, holding executive power and day-to-day maintenance of the community. Heku started the Discord, making him owner and having power and leverage (as he had had with IRC) that he didn't really have in any other "formal" office. I am never one to stay out of power dynamics, as it is a personal fault. As far as I understand, Heku and Mont had been increasingly at eachother's throats during late 2018 and early 2019 over many different issues, such that Heku found it difficult to work with him in any respect. Mont and I had our problems as well. These mutual issues actually formed the basis of something Heku and I had never had before: a positive working relationship. Mont had refused to map several requested entries of mine, I think for islands or colonies or something that I don't remember. In any event, this created animosity between he and I which some of the other staff actually agreed with me on. In May 2019, a significant flare up between he and Mont and I and Mont came. We pulled off a major coup. Despite being legitimate Delegate, he was functionally unseated by Heku by merit of his position as Discord owner and myself by merit of my ownership of the NS Region, which still had a little importance at the time. We were both technically private citizens at the time, but this move ended the Canuck Era and put us both back at the top. The new innovation this time was a triumvirate with Burg, who Heku and I both respected. We appointed Insui as nominal delegate and rewrote the Golden Bull to basically eliminate democracy permanently.

Mont accepted this, more or less, because he had always claimed to not want power, a claim which I accept. However, he continued on as cartographer, and wanted staff privileges with that role. This, combined with a later disagreement about the OOC running of the League of Nations, culminated in Mont leaving. In retrospect I can understand how he felt that things were escalating and people he didn't like were in charge. Unlike some of the other departures, I don't really begrudge this one; he can associate with who he likes, whether it be here or elsewhere. He is a somewhat unpopular character among some of the older plebs but I don't really hold any negative feelings.

Helvi was also banned during this period. I don't remember what the specific incident was, but it ended a four year run with Ixnay during which time he was a primary character.

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.