SK History
A short history of the Seven Kingdoms, by Mikey
Table of Contents:
The Beginning - FPE Era
Back in the early days of Alpha Testing in March 2011, Cody K, The King, Chasm, Gil, Koda and Mikey founded an alliance known as the Free People of Earth, or FPE for short. At the time, very few alliances were in existence, and those that did exist were all 1 man operations, making FPE the very first alliance in Project Terra.
At this time, the game was still in its early days of development, and a month or so after founding the alliance, Admin announced his intent to put development on hiatus for a month, and eventually have a reset. Hearing this, Mikey, King, Cody and Chasm decided to take a break from FPE and explore new horizons until after the reset (going onto establish themselves in the game Lord Empires, where they would establish their first contact with Guardian, beginning what would become a lasting friendship between the two alliances). Gil and Koda decided to call it quits.
Rebirth as SK
Some months later, in the beginning of July, PT came back online and grew in popularity, and the four remaining FPE founders decided to head back to the shores of Terra.
The Quartet quickly grew, after Mikey shamelessly poached Lionheart (whom he had known from another game), who then brought his friend Tenages into the fold.
After reconvening to bring the alliance back together, it was generally agreed upon that the FPE name and theme sucked. A lot. Something had to be done. So at Lionhearts suggestion, the theme was changed to a Song of Ice and Fire, and the name Seven Kingdoms was decided upon. Thereupon much discussing commenced, work was done to update the alliance and write a charter, and Chasm, our technology master, was a lazy bastard who took a week and a half to make the forum.
Lion Era
Growth and Decline
After establishing the theme and the charter, Lionheart was chosen as the King of the Seven Kingdoms, opening in the first phase of our history as SK - the Lion Era.
The beginning of his reign was marked by extraordinary growth for the Seven Kingdoms. Through conniving, witchcraft, bribery, blackmail, and a whole host of other less than reputable methods (they hired Tenages and had him break kneecaps and control people with his voodoo), SK grew from the 6 founders to 25 members in the space of two weeks. A week or so after that, the alliance was at 73 members, making it the 6th most powerful alliance in terms of nations, and one of the strongest in military might.
A large part of this was due to the immigration of those DLP sonsabitches. DLP is known for being some of the most badass and angry people on the internet, making SK one of the most badass and angry alliance on PT. The motto [which was since been changed] truly says it all, Don't fuck with Seven Kingdoms.
Unfortunately, the continual game resets during this period took their toll on the membership. With each successive reset, more members decided to leave, choosing to wait until the game launched in beta stage to come back. This was a trend that affected all alliances, and generally lowered the number of nations in PT at the time.
FA Success
During this time, the brilliant and handsome Lord Chancellor, Mikey, made great strides in the realm of Foreign Affairs.
Better relations were established with Guardian, with whom several founding SK members had been close to - and allied with - in the game Lord Empires. That friendship carried over, and eventually led to the D'Oh Accords, an MDoAP treaty with Guardian.
A treaty was also signed with the Roman Empire. Several SK member were apart of the Roman Empire in CN:TE - Mikey was high gov there, and Lion had previously served as the head of their military. The close personal connections on both sides led to an SK-RE protectorate, and eventually to the Lucky Number 7 Treaty, an MDAP agreement between the two alliances that remained in effect until PT went down.
While no other treaties were signed during Lion's reign, great strides were made in relations with Sparta (with whom SK would later treaty)
There were discussions at the time about setting up an economic bloc named the Terran Economic Association (TEA). The principal parties were Exodus, SK, Guardian, Sparta and the NPO. While TEA never came to fruition, it did lead to a gentleman's agreement between SK, Sparta, NPO and Guardian to stand together if the GOONS led block known as the WA (World Assembly--separate from the game mechanic of the same name) continued attempting to bully the world.
Another great success came with SK's mediation of the Beetlejuice War. Much tension had existed between GOONS and Guardian, and had led to increased verbal mudslinging and military posturing. On August 28th, the two sides broke out in war.
During the conflict, SK mediators worked tirelessly to bring the conflict to a close before it could engulf the rest of the world (SK, Sparta, Odessa and NPO were allied to Guardian while CnG, TFE and NG were allied to GOONS, all of whom risked being dragged into what was a foolish war driven by personal enmities on both sides). Ultimately, the Seven Kingdoms played an instrumental part in brokering the peace reached 4 days later on September 2nd.
Unfortunately during the run-up to the Beetlejuice War, SK's formerly positive relations with NPO were destroyed. GOONS had accused NPO of spying on them and funding rogues, a charge vehemently denied by the NPO. (It turned out that the rogues were funded by a dissident group within the WA bloc who were attempting to provoke a global war) Much contradictory information was flying about, --some untrue information about the NPO was deliberately spread to other SK gov members by Lionheart. The information that they were receiving led to the feeling in SK that NPO had been playing both sides against the middle which led to feelings of resentment and fury among SK government. Likewise NPO was angry and bitter over the suggestion that they had been lying and betraying the gentleman's agreement that existed between the major powers in the Guardian sphere. This poisoned relationships between SK and NPO, eventually leading to a complete breakdown. Lionhearts conduct during this episode played a large role in his replacement as King.
Lucky Number 7 Treaty
D'Oh Accords
War
The Seven Kingdoms are a bloodthirsty lot, and don't take well to boredom. When Mikey and Retter found themselves with nothing to do and a desire to test out the newly setup war system, no alliance was safe.
After bouncing around ideas, the two of them, as well as AridLegion, decided to attack the alliance IRON. Eventually a DoW was posted, and a full scale (though small, as the number of nations on both sides with militaries was not very large) war was waged between the two of them, which lasted for 4 days, when both sides decided they had sufficiently tested the system, and agreed to call of hostilities.
This was the second war to occur in Project-Terra.
World Assembly/International Council
During this time, a proposal was put forth to give the World Assembly more power. Previously, the WA had existed as an in-game function whereby nations could submit resolutions to be read and voted on by the broader PT community. These resolutions had no enforcement mechanism, and were mainly used for nations to make suggestions to the PT community.
The proposed new powers suggested creating an enforcement mechanism that would bind all WA members by any resolution passed. This created huge controversy, and sparked much debate - with the WA proposal going through many phases: from mandatory membership of all nations, to be bound by the WA, to the optional membership of alliances (if an AA joined all its members had to do so), so on and so forth.
This was a problem, because it infringed on the sovereignty of individual alliances by enacting a body higher than them which would dictate to individual nations how to run their nations, and possibly regulate FA/War interaction between AA's.
The Seven Kingdoms joined Guardian in submitting a resolution condemning the WA, refusing to recognizing it, and affirming SK's belief in the paramount importance of alliance Sovereignty.
Coup
By August of 2011, several members had become dissatisfied with Lions aggressive, dictatorial and often-times arbitrary approach to leadership. These members presented their grievances to the Small Council, which also shared the concerns. (The tipping point that had been Lionhearts decision to fire the entire War Dept staff, citing patently false justifications, without the input and over the later objections of Lord Commander Cody K, who nearly resigned over the issue.)
These concerns were exacerbated by his flighty and impulsive nature, his inability during the run-up to the Beetlejuice War to develop and commit to a strategy and his insistence on using sources of information of dubious veracity that could not be verified by the Small Council.
The Lords unanimously drafted a resolution (as was their right by the Charter) recalling Lion as King to take a place instead as a Lord in the Small Council, and for him to be replaced by the Kings Hand, Tenages.
Upon receiving this resolution, Lion initially accepted, signaling his willingness to step down back into regular high gov. However, the next day, shortly before the official announcement, he banned the Lords from the forums, and booted them from the in-game alliance.
The Charter gave the Lords the power, by unanimous vote, to remove the King; and in acting against that, and banning all of them, Lion violated several key parts of the SK charter (a charter that he was a co-author and signatory of) and in essence attempted to coup the alliance.
Fortunately Chasm, the root admin and host of the SK forums, was a friend of the Small Council, and quickly banned Lion from the forums, and restored the accounts of the other Lords.
The next day, heated conversations took place on IRC, with Mikey acting as a mediator (having been away when the coup took place, he was less caught up in the fury and best able to understand both sides). Eventually Lion, claiming that he overreacted to what he supposedly perceived as an attempt to coup him, apologized and restored the Council to their admin positions in-game.
The Council, however, decided that Lions actions could not be tolerated. Attempting to coup and breaching the charter were the worst of offenses, and Lion simply could not be trusted. Tenages, with unanimous support from the Small Council banned Lion for life from the Seven Kingdoms.
Internal announcement regarding Lion's removal
Public announcement regarding Lion's removal
Tenages Era - PT 1.0
After Lionheart was removed as King, Tenages, the Kings Hand, was elevated to the Iron Throne, and Mikey replaced him as Kings Hand.
Restructuring
Fulfilling a promise made both to disgruntled members, and to Lord of War Cody K, the first thing that was done under Tenages reign was a complete review of the alliance charter. Lion's coup and the underlying issues that led to it had exposed several issues with the current charter. Most noticeably, under the old version it required complete unanimity to for the Small Council to replace the King, and it was in fact easier to amend the Charter than to replace the King. While undertaking this review there was an open thread where general membership could make any any suggestions, complaints, etc that they had, to make sure all issues were addressed.
The new charter, while substantially the same, included more checks on the power of the King, and completely re-organized internal structure, what responsibilities fell to which Small Council Lord, and the naming system for the different departments and Lords. The result was a much more responsive, logical and effective structure.
Growth
During the beginning of Teanges reign, there was some growth in member counts, however the general world-wide PT trend of members departing until beta launch continued. Member count fluctuated, eventually settling around the 35 that were left by the time PT went offline.
During this time, however, SK continued to grow in nation strength. Despite never
reaching higher than #7 in members (at times dipping to #12), SK
remained always in the top 10 for NS, usually keeping its place at #5.
During this time SK had one of the highest average NS ratings, and the
best nations in PT.
Foreign Affairs
The FA Adonis Mikey continued to work his magic, and great things were achieved abroad.
During this time period the Seven Kingdoms signed 2 new treaties: an MDoAP with Sparta, whom SK had been growing close to for some time, and an oDoAP with the Black Knights, a newer friend. Through these alliances, SK's global positioning and influence continued to expand.
The Seven Kingdoms also repaired its shattered relationship relationship with the NPO. NPO's then regent (now Emperor) Jasmine first reached out to Tenages on IRC and came to SK's forums, and he reciprocated the gesture. Hard work on both sides and constant communication led to the forging a new relationship that has blossomed to the point that NPO and SK are each others closest friends in PT 2.0
Terran Commune Conflict
Perhaps the most memorable thing to occur during this time period was the Qausi-war between the Seven Kingdoms and the Terran Commune that resulted in the implosion of TC without a single shot being fired.
On October 11th, 2011, The Terran Commune released the Solidarity Doctrine, essentially giving protectorate status to all Socialist oriented alliances and nations in PT.
This was widely seen as a stupid move, and SK, eager for action and astounded at the implications of such a doctrine, began applying pressure.
It began with simply pointing out the flaws in the idea of and more specifically the wording of the doctrine, however as arguments erupted, both sides grew more heated. Mordecai was unleashed from his cave, and The Great Troll wrought havoc on TC throughout the Alliance Politics Forum, and in our embassies. SK members also launched attacks on all Socialist themed nations and alliances they could find out of peace mode.
Threads such as This one showcase the war of words being waged by both sides.
As both alliances militarized and prepared for armed conflict, however, TC began coming apart at the seams. When they held a vote on whether or not to declare war on us, everything imploded. The vote was split, and the stress we had placed on them exacerbated internal issues and caused the alliance to fracture. It is unclear to outsiders just what happened in the proceeding hours, however during that time several members left, various government members voiced competing claims to leadership, and cries of a coup were heard across the AP Forum and the TC forums.
Ultimately Trotsky, Hereno and Spock had to step up, declare "Wahabi Law" , evict various competing claims and voices, and attempt to restore order.
The power, prestige, and credibility of the Terran Commune was shattered. And the Seven Kingdoms hadn't even fired a shot.
The Great Interregnum
In mid-november, PT went offline, and users who entered the URL were met with error messages. Many reasons have been floated to explain this phenomenon, and the most widely credited is that admin did not have time for the game any more, and, after taking time off for personal issues, had forgotten to pay the site bills.
During this time, some 10 SK members decided to establish themselves in Ogame, while hoping for the eventual return of Project-Terra.
Tenages Era - PT 2.0
At last, in early January, everyone's prayers were answered, and PT came online - sold and transferred to our new Admin, blessed is his code, may he preserve us all.
The 10 members that had left for Ogame, as well as a few others who had heard about PT's reactivation rejoined, and SK was born again on Project-Terra on January Sixth.
New Forums
Beginning in November of 2011, the board administrator, Chasm, began to be called away by RL time commitments, and steadily grew less active: this time also coincided with a rising interest among certain SK members to undergo more customization of the forums.
With the gov unable to access the necessary tools to spruce the place up (and with the previous software not being the best available), it was decided to transfer to new forums. Mikey bought a server, and work was begun on what would become the greatest forums in Project Terra.
For a solid week in late January, Tenages, Mikey, Moridin and Lyro worked tirelessly to enact their great vision, what you see before you today. This process was caractarized by long hours of work, little sleep, and Mikey breaking the forums everytime we managed to achieve progress somewhere.
At last, on the first of February, that ravishing embodiment of sex itself on the interwebs, www.7kingdoms.net/pt, went live.
Later on, in early July of 2012, Mikey decided that forums alone were not enough, and with some helped with Tenages build the current main portal you see today.
Growth
Growth has predictably been slow since the re-launch of Project Terra. Slowly but surely, old members have been trickling in, and new members have been recruited. By and large, however, much of the old crowd persist in their determination not to return until the game goes Beta - the recent period of the game being offline being further proof to them, and a few others who joined their ranks in November, that the game is not yet ready to have them back.
That said, SK has been growing healthily and heartily. As of July 27th 2012, Membership stands at 43, up from the original 12. Currently, with the military system being overhauled, NS does not reflect economic development, however with 1 in 4 SK members being in the top 2% (making up a quarter of all top 40 nations), it is clear that the Seven Kingdoms continues its proud tradition of maintaining the best nations in the game.
Foreign Affairs
Mikey and Tenages used the interregnum and the total game reset that followed to embark on a new FA path. After announcing that all of SK's treaties would be considered cancelled in the new PT, SK engaged in many passionate internal debates over the future of its FA path, with a paperless route, sponsored by Mikey and Tenages, winning out. NPO proved receptive to the idea as well, and on March 6th the two became the first alliances to go paperless. Since then, the "FA Revolution" as some have dubbed it, has picked up steam, with Black Knights and Liquid Zero also going paperless.