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.

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

"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 the attached images. 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.

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, 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.

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.

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.

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 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. 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 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. 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 - I don't recall specifically. Some of them did come along and camped in the new region, mostly inactive, until 2019 or so. By this time, the new power bloc was the Audonians and UIF, an alliance that would last a year. 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.

LATA, the merger of the Audonians into LOTA, may have taken place at this time. A historical consult is ongoing.

The final IC event of the Low Golden Age was the Snowlandish Betrayal, an incident that would come to define interpersonal relationships in Ixnay for years to come. Heku and Corumm had joined the region by this time, as it was late 2014 - 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. 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).

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.