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Clans Part 2 October of 2003 and August of 2004. Before you begin reading, I highly recommend you read Part 1 clan history. This documentation covers everything from January 2001 to October 2003. This is meant to be a continuation of Part 1, so it probably won't make any sense unless you read history part 1 first. You will notice some style differences in This history however in, Part 1 , especially in the opening chapters of the history, it exaggerates a great deal and talks about things in grand flowing terms in an attempt to make the characters legendary. This part will try not to exaggerate and remain unbiased, but sometimes it will be necessary to do so in order to make a point. Anyway, read Part 1 clan history first . Then continue on. |
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Chapter I: The Final Days of RuneScape I Chapter II: Dawning hours of an Era(March-April 2004) Chapter III: The Golden Alliance and Other Rising Powers (April-June 2004) Chapter IV. Post Golden Alliance Clan Politics (June-August 2004) |
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Just as points of reference, the Wilderness was introduced into RuneScape in the fall of 2001, and the BDK war occurred around the same time in late 2002. It's not exactly obvious because in part 1 there is much more attention to the Syndicate and pre-wilderness clans (aka, clans of the Golden Age). Back to top I. The Final Days of RuneScape I; A Shifting of Power (October 2003-March 2004) October, 2003. At this time Jagex announced the long-awaited release of RuneScape II. It would be early in 2004, with a beta version available to members on December 1st. Soon clans all across RuneScape would have to give up their old ways and adopt a new lifestyle in the new RuneScape. The end of an era was coming. Meanwhile, a large-scale clan war broke out, a war of attrition between Dias42 and the Rune Raiders. Dias42 was not a member of any clan, but nonetheless, was ironically a key figure in clans at the time. Dias42 rallied the Rune Raiders, Pure Rune, Zeonic Force, a new clan called the Imperial Hellkites Clan, and the Court of Dragons to fight alongside him. The Rune Raiders in turn rallied the Elite Power Knights, led by Upbrother, the Chaos Angels, and the Knights of Death to their cause. Outmanned and severely overpowered, the Rune Raiders were defeated. Eventually after the war, the EPK and the Rune Raiders merged to become the Elite Rune Raiders, but this new clan was short-lived. A little while later, X Dragon X and his Court of Dragons challenged a weakened Golden Helms to war. It was his aggressive ambition and claim to Emperor of the Golden Helms that drove this. Things were in the making for a grand battle. But a week before the war, the Court of Dragons unexpectedly collapsed. The war still went on and X Dragon X gathered some still-loyal ex-CoD members and as many friends as he could find and met the Golden Helms and their allies on the battlefield. They simply didn't have the manpower to take the victory, however, and were demolished although primarily by the Golden Helms' allies. A deep divide in The Alliance was unearthed in the closing days of 2003. Since the RuneScape Mob war The Alliance found itself immersed in a long period of peace, and used this time to strengthen their battle prowess by having inter-alliance fun wars (that is to say wars with no real stakes at hand, played out in a friendly manner and in throw-away armor such as bronze or mithril). The divide started ironically after a fun war between 'THE' Clan and the BlacKnights versus The Darq Syde and the Gladiatorz. Due to miscommunications, the Gladiatorz did not show and The Darq Syde was confused about the location of the battlefield. The whole ordeal resulted in a two against one massacre in favor of 'THE' and the BlacKnights. Yamataka, leader of TDS, claimed that 'THE' and BK had intentionally betrayed her clan, and even threatened to disband The Alliance and had gained considerable agreement on the issue with her Council. The other TDS Councilors narrowly negotiated their way out of the disbanding of The Alliance, but it spelled the beginning of the end for The Darq Syde's membership. Other events came to pass that convinced The Alliance's leaders that Yamataka did not consider her clan's position in The Alliance a priority. In the midst of all this, Clan Jaguar joined The Alliance, but the joy felt by receiving a new member was overcast by growing suspicions The Alliance leaders had for Yamataka. They decided to sign a petition to oust her, but Yamataka pulled The Darq Syde out of The Alliance right before they had completed it. With TDS gone, however, both sides were now free from political restraints that earlier may have prevented them from publicly speaking their minds, and flaming ensued for several days. Eventually it simmered down, and The Alliance realized it had a membership slot to fill. They immediately found their candidate in the Lunar Wolves. Most of the people from the Lunar Wolves were ex-TDS members who left, mainly because of Yamataka, and started a new clan. They were relatively peaceful, and operated under a total democracy, in which the members had complete and total say in matters. However, this radical form of clan government caused the Lunar Wolves' decisions to come at a slow trickle. Lunar and The Alliance finally decided to go their separate ways. The Alliance would never have a fifth member again. After Pure Rune aided Corruption in defeating the Rune Raiders, they went to aid their allies, The Runescape Warhungers Federation, in a war against the Runescape Dinasty. TRWF had been planning to ambush RSD, but their plans were intercepted and TRWF found itself at war with RSD. The Runescape Dinasty, being by far the most powerful clan at the time, easily defeated both TRWF and their Pure Rune allies. Shortly thereafter, Pure Rune's site was hacked and their leader, Bob Cob, decided to shut the clan down. In early march, less than a month before RuneScape II, TRWF and Corruption decided to have a fun war. Unfortunately, the talks broke down into flaming and they decided to have a real war. Before the battle started, the Gladiatorz went to the battlefield and wiped out the majority of Corruption, so the war was considered a draw. Since then, however, a bitter rivalry existed between Corruption and The Runescape Warhungers Federation. Back to top II. Dawning hours of an Era(March-April 2004) Runescape II was unleashed on the clan world on March 29th, 2004. It took clans a few months to fully adapt, and many things were now done differently. Instead of the the traditional combat style in which only one person could take another on in hand-to-hand combat while others either ranged or maged, the Wilderness was divided into multi-combat zones in the east, and single-combat zones in the west. It soon became apparent to everyone that the traditional wilderness weapon of choice, the rune two-handed sword, was far too slow to be of much use. They were eventually phased out, in favor of a more diverse armory of one-handed weapons, including scimitars, long swords, battle axes, and warhammers. Jagex unleashed the famous "pking triangle", in which melee pkers had the advantage against rangers, rangers had the advantage against mages, and mages had the advantage against melee. Also, in order to range, mage, or use melee abilities effectively, you had to wear the specific armour type for your class, so rangers wore dragonhide, mages wore robes, and melee warriors wore rune. The average clan army consisted of approximately two thirds melee, two ninths mages, and one ninth rangers. Rangers and mages gained huge boosts in power from the pking triangle, especially in p2p, where many people complained that RuneScape might as well be re-named "RangeScape". Green, blue, red, and black dragonhide armors were released for rangers, and magic spells now did much more damage. In order to ensure the pking triangle could be carried out on f2p, Jagex stocked Lowe's archery store with iron and steel arrows and oak bows, both long and short. Clan wars still, as always, were played out in f2p so everyone could participate, so at least one fundamental carried over to RS2. Also, in p2p dragon longswords were quickly becoming more and more in use, as pkers began to notice its speed in comparison to the dragon battleaxe. Jagex also added new weapons to the game, including dragon daggers, dragon maces, dragon spears, and throwing axes. The new multi combat wilderness areas provided a more exciting and intense setting for clan wars. It would be a month however, before it was truly put to the test. Only six clans from the Golden Age of Clans still existed: 'THE' Clan, the Gladiatorz, the BlacKnights, the Runescape Dinasty, the GoldenHelms, and the Sabres, although the Sabres and the GoldenHelms were far past their prime. In fact, in recent years the Sabres had lost so much power that they languished in obscurity. The once proud Golden Helms were now commanded by Alex, a man found guilty of several instances of keylogging and who harbored a festering hatred for the clans of The Alliance. Alex declared war on The Alliance with his Golden Helms, out of his deep hatred for them, one whose roots are now shrouded by the mists of time. Alex went so far as to call The Alliance "The Axis of Evil", and attempted to plant keyloggers on the computers of 'THE' Clan's leaders. Alex was confident in GH and his allies' ability to defeat The Alliance. On April 24th, 2004, The Alliance marshaled for the second time in its year and a half long history. It had been nearly seven months since their last war. The Golden Helms had enlisted the aid of clans such as the Knights of Death, The Imperial Hellkites Clan, Clan Anarchy, a few members from a new high level pk clan called Damage Inc, and several other miscellaneous small clans. The Runescape Warhungers Federation were planning to march alongside GH in the battle, but pulled their support after one of TRWF's leaders found a keylogger on his computer that he had traced to Alex. Alex himself was not present among the Golden Helms on the eve of battle, and because of his absence only 10 to 15 GH came. The other people in their loose confederation numbered no more than 50 or so. The Alliance, on the other hand, had a massive turnout of well over 200 people. The coalition led by the Golden Helms was defeated in less than five minutes. Shortly thereafter, in May, The Runescape Warhungers Federation went to war with the Legendary Knights. The Legendary Knights were a new clan led by Upbrother, a former leader of the Elite Power Knights and later on the Elite Rune Raiders. After being booted from ERR, Upbrother created the Legendary Knights. At one point in time TRWF and LK were allied but their alliance broke down. LK was soundly defeated by TRWF. Though defeated by TRWF, LK still continued to grow. Back to top III. The Golden Alliance and Other Rising Powers (April-June 2004) Meanwhile, another fledgling clan was on the horizon. While The Alliance was focused on the GH war, X Dragon X and Raimus, former leaders of the Court of Dragons and the Mystic Knights respectively, created a clan in secret. The name of it was the Mystic Dynasty. XDX and Raimus gathered all of their resources, experience, and loyal ex-members from their former clans to create their new clan. Like their infamous leaders, the Mystic Dynasty was vehemently anti-The Alliance. About a month after MD's creation in early April, the Mystic Dynasty declared a war against The Alliance. The terms of the war enabled them to muster 3 allies to help them fight. They came up with The Darq Syde, Zeonic Force, and Damage Inc. However, Zeonic force later pulled out of the war, and the whole thing was cancelled by X Dragon X. The other two clans decided against being in an alliance with MD to defeat The Alliance. The Mystic Dynasty tried another route to victory. They banded together with the Exercitum of Corruption, which was an alliance between Corruption and the Exercitum of Honorum Milites. The Bloodhounds and Clan Anarchy enlisted in the alliance as well. The Mystic Dynasty also merged with the Golden Helms soon after their ill-fated war and appointed Alex as a councilor. The Exercitum of Corruption was renamed the Golden Alliance because their original name was now an inaccurate description. They also recruited a vast network of spies to infiltrate The Alliance and gain access to Alliance PK trip times and other opportune pieces of information, while The Alliance attempted to counter through use of their own spies. The Golden Alliance need only wait before their chance to strike. While the Golden Alliance was gaining strength, Damage Inc was rapidly growing. With each new member they became larger and more powerful, and they set out to prove themselves by defeating the strongest clan in RuneScape: Runescape Dinasty. Damage Inc was determined to pry the number one spot from RSD's fingers. They had weekly, almost daily, encounters with RSD, in which RSD was usually defeated. But skirmishes were not enough to prove their strength. Only a war could decide who was actually better. So X Bigaboys X, leader of DI, began negotiations with Livinlarge21, the leader of RSD, for a war between the two superpowers to settle once and for all which of them was best. Meanwhile, the Golden Alliance found their chance to strike at The Alliance on the weekend of May 27th. Virtually every clan in The Alliance was out PKing that weekend. With each Alliance PK trip, the Golden Alliance countered with between 50 and 100-strong forces. The Alliance was left dazed and confused by the attacks. But the fighting did not stop there. The Golden Alliance continued their assault on Alliance PK trips well into the following week. All PK trips, big and small, were subject to ambush by the Golden Alliance. The Alliance’s leaders convened immediately following the attacks. They decided that a direct war with the Golden Alliance would not make the GA go away, no matter what the outcome. They reasoned that, ordinarily, the GA would never have come into existence, and that the only reason it had ever manifested itself was because of the member clans’ common urge to fight The Alliance. The leaders decided the appropriate action would be to halt all The Alliance PK trips for two weeks to deny the GA it's reason for existence. Meanwhile, the Gladiatorz were preparing for a long-awaited war with the Mystic Dynasty. MD had asked for a 1 vs 1 war against the Gladiatorz only a week after their creation, and finally MD and the Gladiatorz would fight a war that would be the culmination of The Alliance vs the Golden Alliance. The Gladiatorz were well prepared for the battle. They created a strategy specifically for their war with MD: Forming a defensive block against the member’s fence. The Mystic Dynasty, on the other hand, was growing exponentially each day the war drew closer. The Gladiatorz and the Mystic Dynasty, however, came to an agreement to halt all recruiting two weeks before the war. This agreement, however, was shattered by MD merging with one of their smaller allies, the Bloodhounds. Furious, the Gladiatorz nullified their agreement with the Mystic Dynasty and swore never again to trust them. Recruiting resumed as it always had. Finally, the war date came, and all the populace of Runescape turned their eyes to the carnage that was to come. After months of hype and flaming on both sides, the Gladiatorz and the Mystic Dynasty prepared at last for war. It was perhaps the most intense and bitter fighting ever, but when the smoke cleared, neither side could claim victory. An unwanted presence of Damage Inc and the Runescape Dinasty obscured the outcome of the battle. The Gladiatorz claimed that although DI and RSD had crashed the war, MD had still lost by default because they had their allies with them from the start. As evidence they cited several films and photographs of Corruption and Exercitum members with MD before, and 5 minutes into the fighting. They in turn also said that they had brought in The Alliance, who were waiting on separate servers in the event that MD cheated. The Mystic Dynasty, on the other hand, insisted that they had been set up, that DI and RSD had been told by Annasweat, co-leader of ‘THE’ Clan, not to attack the Gladiatorz. They said that they had been hit hardest by DI’s unexpected presence on the battlefield, because they had unwittingly stumbled right in the middle of a fight between RSD and DI south of the battlefield. The Gladiatorz contested the validity of this, saying that they had had to ward off DI prior to the war and had lost several members in doing so. Regardless of who was in the right, Livinlarge21, leader of the Runescape Dinasty, publicly chastised all RSD members present at the war, saying that it was not the intention of RSD’s leadership to interfere with other clans’ fights. In the end, both sides declared victory. (Coming soon—and in-depth look at the Gladz vs MD war) The day after the Gladz vs MD war, The Alliance’s two week bar on pking had ended. The Golden Alliance, although arguably weakened, was still intact. But they would not be for long. The Mystic Dynasty took a vote among their members and came to the consensus that the Golden Alliance simply was not worth the trouble, and with that, MD withdrew their membership from the Golden Alliance, a move that ultimately crippled it. Hours later, Clan Anarchy followed suit and left as well. MD's move was out of frustration for being accused of hiding behind their allies, being mistaken for Exercitum/Corruption, and that by withdrawing from the Golden Alliance they would have a chance to prove themselves. Ironically, the day after they left the GA, MD looked into renewing their long-dead alliance with Damage Inc. X Bigaboys X agreed, and their alliance with each other was re-ratified. However, days into their allegiance with MD, Bigaboys decided during a joint PK trip with the Mystic Dynasty that Damage Inc was looked upon as weak for having allies and cancelled DI’s alliance. He turned to X Dragon X and issued an ultimatum: MD had 15 minutes to get out of the wilderness, or they would be attacked. XDX refused, and many MD members were killed in the ensuing fight. Feeling betrayed, MD vowed never to have another alliance for the rest of their days. But the rest of MD’s days were numbered. Only two months after its creation, the Mystic Dynasty began showing cracks. Raimus and XDX were in constant disagreement over the direction MD should take. Raimus finally decided that he could not co-lead a clan with XDX, and went off to resurrect his old clan, the Mystic Knights, and took with him 40 of MD’s best. XDX was furious, and accused Raimus of treason. Words were exchanged, tension increased and MD and MK even skirmished in the wilderness. Finally, the issue was resolved when XDX decided to merge his clan into Corruption. This time, however, The Mystic Dynasty would not be keeping its name in the merger. All MD members were now Corruption members. From this position he declared war on Anarchy, because prior to the dissolution of MD, Anarchy and MD had been growing increasingly apart. The war never came to pass however, because only a few days after MD’s merging into Corruption, XDX left to recreate his own old clan, the Court of Dragons. Most of the remaining MD followed him, but about 30 still clung on to the dream of making MD a great clan, and tried to resurrect the Mystic Dynasty. Ultimately it turned out to be just that, a dream, and thus the Mystic Dynasty was gone forever. During the turmoil at MD, the other former Golden Alliance clans were undergoing rough times. Supa Vegeta, leader and founder of Exercitum, left his clan and joined Damage Inc. Exercitum nearly collapsed from the loss and Supa Vegeta’s heir to the throne, Prins Goku, inherited an almost dead Exercitum. Corruption, after a 1 vs 1 war with Zeonic Force in which it was proven beyond a doubt that Corruption had cheated and brought allies, lost all the respect they may have once had, and along with Clan Anarchy, faded into the mist. Back to top IV. Post Golden Alliance Clan Politics (June-August 2004) The collapse of the Golden Alliance and subsequent destruction of its member clans created a vacuum in which other clans began to gain more notoriety. The Legendary Knights had earned a spot as one of the top ten clans in Runescape, after a war against The Dark Legends in which LK reigned victorious. The Imperial Hellkites also became a major player on the clan scene, their emergence ushered in by a large turnout in their successful war against the Tao Clan. Meanwhile, the long-awaited RSD vs DI war was on the horizon, and the closer the date drew, the more intense the flaming between the sides became. This was during a relatively placid time for the clan world so the rivalry between RSD and DI was highly publicized. The publicity the war received was so great that RSD’s ranks swelled from around 150 members to over 250. DI’s memberlist grew as well, to about 150 members. Although outnumbered by RSD, the members of DI were confident in their ability to succeed. They were a PK clan and therefore reasoned that they would fight with a grim efficiency that would systematically destroy RSD. The date finally came. Dozens of people not affiliated with either RSD or DI tagged along just to watch, including several Jagex staff members. All of Runescape held their breath as the two most powerful clans vied for the number one spot. RSD and DI’s armies were so massive that the server strained under the pressure of having so many people in one spot; for unlike the Golden Helms vs The Alliance war, where The Alliance fought GH on several fronts , all of the fighting at the RSD vs DI war was done in one concentrated area. In the end, thanks to a legendary member turnout, The Runescape Dinasty soundly defeated Damage Inc on the field of battle. Then, at the height of RSD’s power, it suddenly ceased to be. Livinlarge21 had been wanting to quit Runescape for a long time, but wanted to give his members one last hurrah. With his clan’s victory over Damage Inc, he had no more reason to remain in RuneScape. Before he left, he officially shut RSD down. RSD grieved the loss of their beloved leader. Some vowed that they would never join another clan, some left RuneScape entirely. But many followed a former RSD advisor named Tammy7738 and created the Empire of Honor. Meanwhile, at Damage Inc, feelings were somewhat melancholy. They had lost their war with RSD, but had also gained the reputation as the most powerful clan in Runescape by default. Most DI were insulted that they had not earned the title. The Alliance was now rid of the Golden Alliance. But now a new alliance was on the horizon, one that would try to reincarnate GA’s mantra of destruction for The Alliance. This new alliance was called the Dark Side Alliance. However, unlike the Golden Alliance, the DSA was comprised of markedly less established clans. It was comprised of The Dark Legends, the Echoes of Silence, Clan Anarchy (by this time Clan Anarchy had lost a considerable amount of steam), and the Imperial Hellkites. They attempted to follow in the Golden Alliance’s footsteps by crashing Alliance PK trips, but they were not nearly as successful. So, they tried a tactic that the Golden Alliance had never tried: they declared a war on The Alliance. The Alliance accepted, and Alliance members were eager to gauge how much they had grown since the GH war. Shortly after The Alliance acceptance, the Dark Side Alliance changed their name to Thee Alliance, a decision that proved to be fatal. Thee Alliance was now considered a farce and were subject to extreme ridicule. Then, just as the Golden Alliance had, the member clans decided that their alliance was not worth it, and Thee Alliance disbanded. Almost immediately after Thee Alliance disbanded, the Imperial Hellkites went to war The Runescape Warhungers Federation. Both sides had impressive turnouts, but the battle was ambushed by Damage Inc. Frustrated, both TRWF and IHC tried desperately to claim victory, but the appearance of DI simply obscured the outcome too much, and it was eventually decided by both sides that the war was a draw. ‘THE’ Clan then decided to settle the score once and for all with Clan Anarchy. Anarchy had been enemies with ‘THE’ long before the Golden Alliance, and their involvement in Thee Alliance was the last straw for ‘THE’ leadership. King Cj70, leader of ‘THE’ clan, declared war on Anarchy. Anarchy accepted. Clan Anarchy was much less powerful than they were during the Golden Alliance and were teetering on the brink of destruction. This would be their last grand fight against an Alliance clan. ‘THE’ Clan, in a war that underlined their strength, crushed Anarchy within 2 minutes. (The following paragraph is a bit confusing, and frankly is not absolutely necessary to read. So if you don’t want to have to read and reread it in order to comprehend it, I suggest you skip it and move on.) Chronic24, leader of Clan Anarchy, wanted to fight another clan to regain Anarchy’s dignity. Immediately after their war with ‘THE’ they declared war on The Mighty Red Dragons, who were close allies with several Alliance clans. But TMRD declined, because they felt there was not enough reason to go to war. The Legendary Knights then declared war on Clan Anarchy. But Uprother and Chronic could not come to an agreement on the terms of the war, and it too fell through. Upbrother, although he could not come to terms with Chronic, still wanted a war, and declared on The Runescape Warhungers Federation. TRWF, as their name implies, were eager to accept. But before the war came to pass, the BlacKnights openly declared war on LK. They had a score to settle with their leader. LK accepted their declaration but cancelled it a few days later, much to the dismay of the BlacKnights. After declaring two wars and having one declared upon them in less than one week, the Legendary Knights no longer existed. Upbrother merged LK with the Court of Dragons and created a new clan called Infinite Sin. However, soon after the new clan’s creation, Upbrother retired his leadership position and went back to recreate the Legendary Knights. X Dragon X decided not to recreate the CoD, and instead joined The Dark Legends. And thus, XDX finally faded into obscurity. At least for a while. ............................. Back to top |
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