An alliance of the early guild era, it was governed under a written constitution of offices, and its membership — twelve guilds at its August 2017 peak — turned over almost completely between May and October.

History

The first alliance thread (Wynncraft forums thread 188024) was opened on 7 May 2017 by Paladin A'renos: "The Emperium of Wynn (TEoW) is a Dynamic alliance that was formed on the 21st of April with the goal of uniting guilds of all levels and experience to create a more user-friendly experience."^[1] Its stated order of business put community ahead of war — "As a fairly new alliance, our first goal is to get connected with our community. Events, giveaways, dungeon runs... After that, we plan on bringing in the war aspect of any alliance" — though the rules also provided for "aggressive extermination" of guilds found to be bullying members, and asked members to "refrain from taking lands from small guilds".^[1]

The May 2017 roster listed ten guilds — Libertas, UltimateXeons, NeoPancakes, Sinners, The Mage Legacy, Wynn Theory, Boom, BuildCraftia, Shadow Kittens and LE Flowers — with Beasts and Jaguars pending, and only one filled leadership portfolio (War Leader DownDeeper).^[2] By the time the opening post was last revised in August 2017 the roster had turned over almost completely and every office was staffed; the War Leader by mid-June was TnTdestroyd, who was also named the alliance's member of the month for his warring.^[3]

A second thread (202724) was opened on 4 September 2017 by Nitrogen2Oxygen, posting as "Cloud Man", after A'renos left the alliance.^[4] By 5 September 2017 the alliance had a ten-guild roster, Nitrogen2Oxygen as Emperator and Drew1011 already installed as Shadow Advisor;^[5] by 17 October 2017 it was much reduced.^[6]

Government

The Emperator was "the main figure head and the leader of the Emperium of Wynn... Their word is law within the alliance". Beneath the Emperator sat a Shadow Advisor — "the co-leader of the alliance", bound by an "Oath of the Shadow Advisor" — a War Leader (territory allocation, guild banks, war games), a Community Leader chosen by community poll, and an Economy Leader. A High Council of one to three representatives per guild voted on rule changes, leadership changes and admissions; Judges ruled on rule-breaking, and their word could not be over-ruled. A Buddy System let member guilds sponsor sub-guilds and lend them territory, and the constitution capped any single alliance at 10–15 guilds, requiring an overflow of five or more to be spun off as a "Brother Alliance" under its own Emperator.^[1][6]

Applications were processed in the thread itself: Tranquility [PaT], led by DemoGhost and self-described as "War", applied on 12 September 2017 and was answered by Drew1011 as Shadow Advisor.^[7]

Membership

The roster of the first thread as last revised (August 2017), with the leader named for each guild:^[1]

Leadership at that date: Emperator Nitrogen2Oxygen, War Leader Shirou, Community Leader joshaftel, Economy Leader Angry_Will, Judges Meekio, Nitrogen2Oxygen, Lestrade and joshaftel.^[1] The same revision listed eleven "Honored Retired Guilds" — NeoPancakes, The Mage Legacy, Wynn Theory, Void of Amnesia, Jaguars, Boom, Shadow Kittens, Libertas, BuildCraftia, New York Nibbas and Elven Fury.^[2]

The second thread's opening post, as last revised on 17 October 2017, names only four member guilds: UltimateXeons [UXs] (motoki1), LE Flowers [LEF] (MarcosSegon), TitanZ [TTZ] (SiuChau) and "Kingdom Foxes [ Fox ] - Owner LoveLusting/Drew1011".^[6]

Drew1011's account gives Kingdom Foxes two separate stints: a first of thirteen days from about May 2017, entered on a 14–4 guild vote and with Fox holding three of the six judge seats, ended by an argument in the alliance Discord; and a second from about September 2017, which he says caused part of the guild to leave and found KingdomPhoenixes.^[8] No other source records the first stint.

Machine-recorded alliance data begins in January 2018, three months after the Emperium fell.

The Emperator election

The alliance held two contested elections in 2017; neither was recorded on the forums.

A Discord announcement by Paladin A'renos calling the vote for Emperator between Nitrogen2Oxygen and Drew1011, with the reaction tallies showing D = 30 and N = 31. From Drew1011's storytime account.^[9]

By Drew1011's narrative the contest opened when A'renos announced he no longer had time to run the alliance; three candidates stood — Nitrogen2Oxygen, joshaftel (ElegantDeath) and Drew1011 — and joshaftel withdrew to act as Drew1011's campaign manager in exchange for the promise of the Community Leader post. The vote ran a week and ended 30–31 in Nitrogen2Oxygen's favour.^[10] Drew1011's application was an essay setting out his guild and alliance offices from 2015 onward.^[11] The alliance's constitutional document, which he says was titled "The Emperial Truth", does not survive.

No forum record dates the election. Nitrogen2Oxygen was already Emperator by August 2017, which places the contest before then rather than in the autumn where the sequence of Drew1011's narrative would otherwise put it.^[1]

A second, better-dated poll followed. On 31 August 2017 Nitrogen2Oxygen asked the alliance to choose a Shadow Advisor between Shy_Phoenix, Angry_will, Drew1011 and Whimsicality; the tallies were 4, 5, 19 and 4.^[12] Drew1011 held the post by 5 September 2017.^[5]

The Shadow Advisor poll of 31 August 2017, in which Drew1011 was elected 19 votes to 5, 4 and 4. From Drew1011's storytime account.^[12]

An unresolved question

Three sources describe the top of the alliance in October 2017 and no two agree.

• Drew1011's forum profile records the title "Emperator of Emperium of Wynn: 15 October 2017 — 16 October 2017", a reign of a single day.^[13]
• Drew1011's own narrative says he ran for Emperator and lost, 30–31, and that he afterwards won a by-election for Shadow Advisor. He never claims to have been Emperator.^[10]
• The second thread, the only contemporaneous source, names Nitrogen2Oxygen as Emperator on 5 September 2017^[5] and Angry_will as Emperator in the opening post as last revised at 3:59 PM on 17 October 2017, with Drew1011 as Shadow Advisor in both.^[6]

The three cannot be reconciled. A one-day Emperatorship between Nitrogen2Oxygen's departure and Angry_will's installation would fit every recorded date, since the Shadow Advisor was constitutionally the co-leader — but no source states that such a succession occurred. Angry_will, who was also the alliance's Economy Leader, appears in no other source.

Decline and fall

The leadership thinned through the late summer. On 4 September 2017 Nitrogen2Oxygen wrote in the first thread: "Such a sad time. Arenos leaves, Josh leaves and now my bot gets hecked"^[14] — the alliance's thread-keeper and its Community Leader gone within weeks, alongside a compromised Discord bot that had mass-banned visitors.^[15] The replacement thread he promised was posted the same day.^[4]

The community guild-timeline image records "10/17/17 Emperium Falls".^[16] Drew1011, then its Shadow Advisor, wrote that by mid-October "the Emperium was completely dead at that point", and dates his own move to found the Coalition to the same weeks.^[17] The first thread's own last two posts are dated 17 October 2017: Paladin A'renos writing "bumity bump bump lets get this back up", and the reply "necro!!! alert alert!!".^[18]

Legacy

The Emperium's people outlasted it, and several of them reassembled elsewhere. Nitrogen2Oxygen resurfaced as DiamondDeities' representative in the Aesir Pact in 2018 alongside simplyinfinity_ of Sins of Seedia;^[19] IceResistance's Titans Valor became one of the longest-running guilds in the record; and IceBlueTeam, TheNoLifes and Sins of Seedia all reappear in later alliance rosters. Four guilds named in Drew1011's roster of War Syndicate at the December 2017 declaration of war — BuildCraftia, Sins of Seedia, Titans Valor and Beasts — were Emperium members during 2017, Tranquility applied that September, and the Emperium's War Leader in mid-2017 was TnTdestroyd, whom the same account names as War Syndicate's unofficial leader. The possible continuity between the two blocs is set out on the War Syndicate page. As an institution the Emperium left less: no successor claimed the name, and its constitution of Emperators, Judges and Brother Alliances was not imitated by the war blocs that followed.