House Stark [Stark] recently announced that it has abandoned its strict land claim policy in Almenly, putting in place a new designation called a “Declaration of Homeland.”
The announcement was officially made in the Illyriad Forums on July 14th, when Stark Leader PhoenixFire noted that the alliance’s land claim in the southeastern quadrant of Almenly, which originally prohibited new settlement of players outside of Stark, was being replaced with the more lenient “DoH.” The first version of the DoH policy mandated a 13-square no-settlement radius around Stark cities — an expansion of the widely-held “10-square rule” that generally governs the game.
However, a litany of negative feedback from other players over the new policy persuaded PF to amend the Stark policy. What appears to be the final policy for the time being was posted in the forums, and reads:
As of July 14th east of x:-100 and south of y: -2625 in Almenly as their Homeland. We will treat it like Trivium’s Zone 2 claim meaning we will not adhere to any land claims within this area.Edited: We as Stark will adhere to a 13 square rule inside this area and encourage others to do so, however you may still follow the 10sq rule if you wish. Do expect for us to be harvesting and skinning 6 squares away from our cities though.However we do not suggest settling here as this is where Stark will be settling most of its cities and does not wish to push anyone out just because we may outgrow you.
The new version of the policy appears to only enforce the 10-square rule and prohibition of any other alliance land claim within the alliance’s original land claim borders.
The land claim map made note of the change as well (pictured above). The new map rendering features a dashed border, which the map legend indicates as “claim free zones.”
The Illyriad Times 
So, does this mean Stark is now a member of the anti-claimers group? Is this then a victory for one of the sides? If so, wonder who?
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We are not a member of the anti-claimer group. We wanted room to call our own while still letting people settle near us.
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Glad to see expansion east is available, cant wait to be neighbors
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I believe this may be a bit of premature move on Stark’s part. Stark was committed to the land claim as evidenced by their declaration of war against Stomps. There are other alliances still fighting Stomps and without any pressure Stark appears to have caved. I hope this is not correct but it sure looks that way.
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Aj had approached Shu-Han weeks earlier on the subject of DoHs. It may be that they were encouraged by Stomps, or other anti LC groups to drop the claim and instate a DoH instead.
After all, House Stark has sustained significant losses in the War of Northern Aggression. Now lacking the military capacity that they had prior in enforcing their claim this DoH may be an answer to that.
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I understand SHU. But perception is reality right? This has the ability to be perceived differently than Stark intended.Imagine the powerful move it could have been by waiting till the war was over. On another note you called it the War of Northern Aggression. I am partial to “PICO’S FOLLY”. I am interested to see if Stark stays in the war.
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Well Waffles,
Personally I do not think house Stark had a good option left to them. They are not recruiting because they are in the war. They also do not have effective recruiters. They have failed to populate that sector of Almenly. Their power hitter PF has suffered significant losses as well. Sans a fighting spirit, they have nothing to defend that LC.
Their leader PhoenixFire was approached on a number of occasions with offers to join Shu-Han. The offers ranged from outright merger w/ PF sharing leadership, to House Stark becoming a servant alliance to Shu-Han. It was not uncommon for PF to insult Shu-Han’s diplomats, creating an increasingly hostile environment in Almenly.
I think a combination of their creating the tension filled Almenly they now exist in, and the lack of members and military capacity both contributed to their decision to drop the enforced claim and turn to a DoH.
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There is no reason for us to stay in a war over land claims when we no longer have one.
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Yes, please keep assuming everything happens because of Han. We changed the policy after I was persuaded by bimoda on how the land claims are being abused. So we changed it to saying we are going to live here please stay x number of squares away which is all we wanted from the get go, we wanted space to grow in our little part of the BL.
Also, please provide me with proof of my insults because I still don’t know what your talking about.
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