Controversial Illyriad player Pico has continued to stoke controversy even after abandoning, with his multitude of cities prompting players in Elgea and the Broken Lands to make strategic moves to ensure their capture or destruction.
Tension over sieging of the cities began immediately after Pico abandoned, with now ex-SHARK player Agalloch and SHARK veteran Silverblade both threatening a player named Takuilrue over his attempt on taking one of Pico’s cities. The Times later obtained an IGM from SHARK leader Baynights directed at this player — rumored to be Gul’Dan in disguise — threatening to break his siege on the abandoned city:
From: BayNights [SHARK]
Subject: RE: siege – recall
Received: 14 Jan 2016 00:14
Original Message: Hi Takuilrue, I noticed you have launched sieges against two of lepue’s cities. These cities are property of Shark/Vic. Please check players alliance alignment before sending sieges, and you can see that lepue was in our alliance as of this morning. Please recall immediately, our troops are on the way to remove any sieges and we do not want to harm your troops. BayNights
A tip to the Times indicates that T-O and DSD leader Pellinell has permanently departed both organizations to form a new alliance called the Holy Storm Company [Storm], along with members of The Liberation [HEAT]. The new alliance will purportedly include the largest, most active accounts from both T-O and HEAT in a move that the leaders believe could make it among the largest alliances in the game according to land mass, membership and population.
Details on the founding of the new alliance were posted in the Herald:
While the upstart alliance is still so new that it doesn’t even have a profile page, Storm’s roster is already filling out less than 24 hours since its founding, with top players Pellinell and Madmano filling out its ranks.
The tipster who alerted the Times to this significant political move indicated that the new alliance is being formed to put to rest lingering tensions between the DSD and GA, left over from the contentious “Great War.” Storm will purportedly comport itself as a completely neutral alliance in Illyriad politics.
Pellinell and T-O’s abrupt departure from DSD leaves that confederation’s future in question, given T-O’s leadership role in DSD decision-making as well as its military might, which was likely the DSD’s largest fighting force. While no official statements have been made concerning the end of the Newlands War, early indications are that the DSD forces and SHARK have come to an agreement, with SHARK making peace with RE and TCol, who had reportedly aided DSD South forces in the war. The apparent loss of the Newlands war and departure of Pellinell and T-O leaves the future of DSD in doubt.
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.]
Controversial Illyriad player Pico has continued to stoke controversy even after abandoning, with his multitude of cities prompting players in Elgea and the Broken Lands to make strategic moves to ensure their capture or destruction.
The Illyriad Times 