[UPDATED] The “Epidemic War:” Could Madmano’s Capping of Epi’s Lost City Lead To War Among Questers?

The HEAT is on: Epi’s Karak Drak, now under control of Madmano [HEAT]. Arial photo by Ezekiel Bumfister.

At present, the Stomps/BL Land Claim war has dominated headlines, however, a smaller yet intriguing conflict is arising over what has been dubbed “the Greatest Quest on Illyriad” and the recent permaban of Epidemic’s account. The quest has been ongoing for more than a year now in an attempt to unlock powerful crafting weapons, such as the now-mythical Elven Spirit Bow. A portion of Illy players have pursued unlocking the mysterious discoveries, logging over 24 pages of clues in the official Illyriad forum. Known as a preeminent trader with a streak for controversy, Epidemic was recently permabanned by GM Rikoo for comments made in GC that were deemed offensive the Illyriad gaming community. In the wake of Epi losing his account, however, the questers also lost perhaps the most successful quester in the game (or at least his main), as well as the city that had progressed the farthest in unlocking the mystery. Epidemic’s city of Karak Drak quite literally is the epicenter of the quest. And now, more than one quester wants to lay claim to it. Recently, a new forum thread was started by TheBillPN who appears to be claiming rights of successorship to Karak Drak:

Epidemic has left, and his town with the mystery progress is Karak Drak.

On Behalf of the mystery hunter Group Epidemic was part of, we would like to lay claim to this town for the purposes of furthering out knowledge of the quest.

As such, we would need to siege, and i believe many others may already have sent sieges. However, Epidemic did say that Freyja could have the town, but she want one of the Mystery Hunters to have it, not specifically her.Therefor, i would please ask you to consider letting either myself, Freyja, Syr or Demdigs claim the town for mystery furthering purposes.

Thank you.

TheBillPN’s presumption that she has rights to the city, however, appear to be a point of contention among other major influencers in the game. In the thread, eCrow leader Angrim noted that, “Epidemic had an opportunity to set his affairs in order and instead decided to throw them into chaos. I don’t think he’s in any position to influence the disposal of his cities now.” nCrow luminary Rill also appeared to be envisioning the city playing host to multiple sieges at once, suggesting: “I suggest you send mails to anyone when you see a siege land (or see one on the siege page).  A lot of people don’t read the forum.” Of course, the discussion in the forums has gone from speculative to academic, since Madmano [HEAT] captured the city while others were debating who has fair claim to it. At present, there is still a blockade on the city, as well as four occupying armies. The blockade is occupying a small forest, while the occupied western square is a large hill, representing the two prime locations for mounting siege operations from a defensive perspective. The remaining squares, including the three unoccupied squares, are all on plains.

Could Karak Drak Spark Conflict?

The current situation has the making of an intriguing conflict that could escalate into the use of military force to win control of Karak Drak and its valuable research into the quest, with several alliances seeking to gain an advantage to being first to unlock the mystery. In effect, Karak Drak may be the most valuable city in Illyriad. And now Madmano owns it. A unique military conflict could erupt around Karak Drak if several siege armies arrive around the same time, competing to take the city by storm. In order to secure the highest raze population, alliances could seek to destroy other sieges that set up before them. It s possible that siege armies are currently en route. It is almost not entirely clear who the blockades and occupying armies belong to. The Times is asking players to scout the armies and send reports and/or tips to put this story into better focus. —– [UPDATED July 5, 2015 at 14:17 ST — Manmano contacted the Times and stated that Sexy Lynn, who has been sitting the Deicide account, gave Karak Drak to Madmano with Epidemic’s blessing. This statement was corroborated by Lynn herself in a comment to the Times. Mano also noted to the Times that “so far no threats have been made and I already spoke with alice, dem and ryklaw [and] all seem to be ok for me having the town.” He went on to note that he has no intention of selling or ransoming the town, and that he is going to work closely with the quest group to continue the quest and help in any way that he can: “also when next time audrey wakes up if my other town gets misted i will give anyone of misted town to the quest group whom i think is really working on it.” Thank you to everyone involved for enhancing the coverage of this story.]